Xenosaga III The Final
by Aerith The Evenstar
Summary: Sequel to Xenosaga II The Middle. Ayame's memories haven't been the only thing she's been seeing as she starts to see visions of events yet to come. Will she finally learn who she is and will her past be what she thought it was? Jr.xOC.
1. Prologue

ATE: The third Xenosaga story is finally here. I thank everyone who had been waiting paitently for this story to come. I'm sorry if this chap is short, but I did it for a reason. I hope you all enjoy it!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

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**Xenosaga III  
****The Final**

Prologue

_The year is T.C. 4747 on the Planet Michtam. The city was in complete ruins with fire burning all around. A pillar of light was emitting from the top of a building as the hordes of Gnosis attacked the area, killing anyone who happened to be spotted by them. A woman with dark hair wearing a necklace with a small crystal and her, son who had inherited her dark hair, were trying to get away from the area as quickly and quietly as they could, making their way to a building as the older woman held her son close. _

_They eventually made it to the building and found an emergency escape pod, the two embracing one last time since the mother knew that she couldn't go where her son was heading and gave him the necklace she wore around her neck. The boy looked stared at it and looked back up at his mother in confusion only for the door of the escape pod to suddenly close and he started to desperately pound on it towards his mother. As the woman and her son placed their hands on the window in the same place and his eyes widened when he saw his mother suddenly mutate into a horrendous creature, a Gnosis. The mother couldn't help but give a sad smile as she watched the escape pod take off, leaving Michtam._

_As the boy looked back as he cried, he realized that after this the Planet Michtam would be nothing more than a graveyard world. He lost everything, along with his mother. All because of the Gnosis._

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Inside a cavern with a stone cross the Red Testament stood looking down at the stone casket that was directly in front of him.

"Looks like things are going smoothly."

Suddenly the Blue, Black, and White Testaments appeared on the other side of the casket from where the Red Testament stood.

"Tch. You're as friendly as ever." The Blue Testament said. He walked over to where his red cloaked comrade stood, his cape trailing behind him. "Well, you sure are pulling out the big guns. Do we really need this thing?"

"The space-time anomaly fifteen years ago took place in an incomplete fashion. We must correct the errors." The Red Testament stated, looking at the Blue Testament.

"So, you knew all along, huh? You're one scary guy. I bet you can't wait to see the look on her face when she finally knows everything."

"…" The Red Testament looked back down at the casket and what was inside it.

"So, this is our princess?" The Blue Testament asked. He leaned his head closer to the opening of the stone casket and took a sniff of whatever was inside. "She smells good. I've fallen in love already."

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ATE: Again, I apologize for this chap being short, but it was the only thing I could think of for a prologue. The next chap will be worth the wait so hang in there!

Please Review! :)


	2. Chapter 1

ATE: I've finally finished writting chap 1 for this story. I've had the idea for this chap for a while now and I wanted to get it up. I hope you all enjoy it!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or Final Fantasy X-2. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

Speaking about Ayame and Lilith, here's so info.

Ayame's age in this story is 18. Her theme is 'Please Call My Name' from Xenosaga: A Missing Year which is by Yuki Kajiura (I don't own the song). You can listen to it on youtube.

Lilith's age is 27 in this story and her theme is 'A Song Of Storm And Fire' from Tsubasa Chronicles which is also by Yuki Kajiura (don't own this either).

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Chapter 1

_I opened my eyes and I could see that I was standing in the field of flowers that I've been seeing lately in my dreams. The flowers were beautiful and the gentle breeze would pick up some stray petals and send them floating in the air, adding to the enchanting surreal surroundings I stood in. I don't know why, but despite only being here a few times in my dreams I felt like I should know what this place was, as if I'd seen it before having lost my memories. It was strange. I turned around so I could see the rest of the field again, only for my eyes to widen when I saw that I wasn't alone. Standing some feet away from me was a cloaked man. _

"_Testament!" I cried._

_On reflex, I started reaching behind my back to retrieve the Shiruba, only to realize that my guns along with their holster weren't there. I was defenseless! I looked back up at the Testament and noticed that he hadn't made a move whatsoever. He was different from the other Testament, with the fact that his outfit was all white and that he hadn't spoken yet._

"_Wait. You're not like the other Testaments, yet you are one of them. There's something about you that seems different…" I said, seeing if he would say anything. But when I didn't hear him talk I felt somewhat confused. "Who…are you…?"_

_I didn't get a reply but what I did get was him shaking his head and I immediately knew what that meant._

"_You mean you can't tell me, can you?"_

_He nodded his head. When he stopped he turned his head to look at something and pointed a finger at me. I followed his gaze and saw that he was pointing to the necklace that was wrapped around the belt on my waist._

"_Are you wondering what this is?" I asked._

_The White Testament nodded his head in answer. _

"_My friend's brother had him give it to me after he died. Even though it's been a year since then my friend's still sad about his death. To tell you the truth, I'm was sad about his death as well and I still am, but I really don't know why." My eyes widened when I realized what I was saying. "Why am I even telling you all this stuff? You're a complete stranger and I barely even know you. But still, you seem to listen to what I say despite this being a one way conversation."_

_I could feel the slight lightheaded feeling that indicated that I was waking up. _

"_I guess this is goodbye for now."_

_------------------------------------------------------------_

I woke up in my bed from the dream I had and sat up. I saw Lilith leaning against the wall I was facing with her deep green eyes looking at me curiously.

"Did you sleep well, Ayame." She asked.

"Yes." I answered.

I got out of my bed and made it before going over to get my clothes in order to take a shower. I got in the bathroom and got a shower before getting out to get dressed in the clothes I brought in with me.

The outfit I wore consisted of long black pants that were somewhat loose at the bottom near my feet, which had brown shoes on them. The shirt I wore was a white tank top that came down past the insides of my pockets in my pants and was somewhat loose as it came down. On my arms were navy blue arm warmers and around my waist was a long cape-like navy blue skirt that came down right before the bottom of my pants and had the string wrap around my waist like a belt which I tied in a knot a little ways to the right (AN: like Yuna's blue skirt that she wears in Final Fantasy X-2, except it isn't on the side covering her leg). Around my neck was the crystal necklace that I've always wore since I woken up from suspended animation a year ago.

I left the bathroom for my room and went over to the drawer next to my bed. Opening it up I pulled out Albedo's necklace and tied it on the left side of the string of my cape-like skirt opposite of the knot that held it around my waist. When I was done I got my holster with the Shiruba in it and put it own. I turned to Lilith who hadn't moved since I left the room for the bathroom.

"I'll be going now."

"To the usual place?" Lilith lifted her head up.

I couldn't help but smile as I nodded to her. Lilith sighed before pushing off the wall she was leaning on and we both walked out of the room.

"You really like taking care of those flowers, don't you?" She asked as we made our way to the Park Area.

"Yes. They're special because Jr. gave them to me."

"Yeah, and how sweet he is towards you."

"Huh?" I looked at Lilith confused.

"Nothing."

We soon arrived in the Park Area and I made my way over to the right side of the room (from the door) to the place across the short bridge where I had planted my Japanese irises in the soil. I knelt down in front of them to check them, noticing how well they've grown since I got them last year and they were a pretty shade of purple. I had only planted three of the bulbs last year and had decided to save the other three for when these ones died. I started watering them like I had done everyday since I had planted them, making sure the give them a good amount of water before stopping. It was right after I stopped watering the Japanese irises that I suddenly felt a slight pain in my head as I suddenly saw an image.

_I could see what looked like a huge mass of land floating in space. It reminded me of the Kukai Foundation but there was no hint of technology and there wasn't a dome over the land to protect it from the vacuums of space. _

_The image soon faded to be replaced with what looked like the inside of a cavern and I could see what looked like two beings identical to KOS-MOS fighting each other._

The image ended along with the slight pain in my head and I pulled my hand away from my head, letting it rest at my side.

"_Another vision…_" I thought. "_What does this all mean?_"

"Ayame?"

I turned my head in the direction the voice came from and saw Jr. standing not too far from where I was.

He wore his new outfit which happened to be a long sleeved black leather jacket. He wore a gray shirt with a loose white shirt underneath it and a necklace around his neck with a metal charm that looked like somewhat like an 'A' (AN: I couldn't exactly figure out what it looked like, so bare with me). He wore long pants that started out with a dark blue but upon reaching near the middle of his thigh was black (the bottom ending at the middle of his thigh) and below it was a dark red that went all the way down to the end of his pants, where his feet wore brown western styled boots. Around his waist was an old brown western styled holster that held his guns behind his back. There was a metal cross hooked onto the metal ring that was on the holster along with a metal chain connected with the cross, the other end of the chain connected to the back as well. He still wore that his earring on his left ear.

Jr.'s face expressed a concerned look, his blue eyes mirroring the emotion as well. He came over and knelt down next to me as he placed his right hand on my back.

"Is something wrong?" He asked.

"No. I've just been seeing images lately, that's all." I answered.

"Are they flashbacks of your past?"

I shook my head.

"They aren't flashbacks, that much I know for sure. They're more like…visions…"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

I nodded.

"Let's go sit down somewhere. Then you can tell me."

Jr. was the first to get up and he held out a hand to help me up, which I took. After helping me up we walked over to a bench nearby and sat down next to each other on it.

"So what are these visions you've been seeing?" He asked, looking at me curiously.

"They seem to be events that haven't happened yet. I know this since they seem to take place around this time, but they're not events that have already happened. I have a feeling that they'll happen soon, but I don't know when or why." I explained. "The recent ones I saw was a huge mass of land floating in space and the other was inside a cavern where two KOS-MOSes were fighting each other."

"A mass of land floating in space and two KOS-MOSes? That seems a little far-fetched, but if it's something that might happen soon we should be ready, right?"

"Yes. That would be the best thing to do."

I held onto Jr.'s right hand as he did the same with my left and we continued to sit on the bench together. There hasn't been much work for us to do for the Kukai Foundation and this in turn everyone time to relax a bit.

"Say, Ayame." I looked to Jr. "How about we go to the Foundation today? We could go to the beach and even have Mary and Shelley come with us."

"That sounds like a good idea. But we're forgetting one other person as well." I told him.

Jr. groaned when he realized who I meant.

"Do we have to bring her?"

"We don't really have a choice. If we leave without her she'll probably punch you again like last time."

It's true. One time we went somewhere without Lilith knowing and didn't bring her with us. It was when had gotten back that she punched Jr. for not telling and/or bringing her with us. That was when we went to the Foundation so I could get a watering can for my Japanese irises, too. She's really protective of me because of her duty.

"You have a point. I can still remember the last time it happened." Jr. flinched upon remembering.

"You better remember it, Red." We turned around and saw Lilith walking over to us. "You know that--"

"It's your duty to protect me/Ayame." Jr. and I finished.

"Interesting that you have it memorized. But you know that you don't have a choice but to bring me. Unless you want to get punched again?"

"U-uh, no!" Jr. said fearfully. "We'll take you!"

"Good." She started walking away. "See you two along with Mary and Shelley at the Shuttle Launch."

After Lilith was gone Jr. and I looked at each other.

"I'm surprised that you're even friends with her."

"Sometimes I wonder how I was able to." I replied.

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Jr., Lilith, Mary, Shelley, and I sat in the Shuttle Launch as it made its way to the Foundation. Personally, I was surprised Mary and Shelley agreed to come with us to the beach, but I think they could use this time to relax. We soon arrived at the Foundation and started making our way to the beach. As we walked I couldn't help but remember the last time I had been to the beach. It was a year ago when I went with Jr. and the others and I wouldn't never forget how he had me blindfolded before getting there. That was one of the moments I will always treasure in my heart.

We soon arrived at the beach and we went our separate ways (more like Jr. having to leave us since we had to change in separate rooms). As I stood in one of the stalls in the girls changing room I took out the lilac two piece swimsuit that had a lilac sash and I could remember when I last wore it here. I took my outfit off and got into my swimsuit before leaving the stall where Lilith, Mary and Shelley stood in their swimsuits.

Lilith wore a dark green and black two piece swimsuit that brought out her eyes. Mary had a blue two piece, while her older sister wore a dark purple two piece. Overall they looked really nice in their swimsuits.

"Are ya ready, Ayame?" Mary asked.

"Yes."

We all left the changing room and stood in the warm sand waiting for Jr. We didn't have to wait long since he soon came out.

Jr.'s swimsuit was different than the last one he wore (which was a year ago). He wore dark blue short swim trunks that had red and white strips on the sides. What I was surprised to find was a waterproof holster around his waist with his guns behind his back. He wore brown and black sandals on his feet while on his left wrist was a black and blue wrist band. He wore what looked like a dark gray and yellow life vest which he wore open like his jacket. Around his neck was a green whistle while on his head was a sun visor, the part where it would shade your eyes was a semi transparent yellow/orange color that reminded me of sunglasses.

Mary, Shelley, and Lilith went and sat in beach chairs in order to sunbath in the warm light, Jr. went and swam in the water while I sat at the edge, letting the cool water lap at my feet.

I started drawing something in the sand with my finger, not aware of what it was that I drew. When I looked at the drawing in the sand I realized that it was the floating mass of land I had seen in my vision. I was about to use my hand to get ride of the drawing when I was suddenly splashed with water, causing me to get wet. I looked up and saw Jr. standing in the water some distance away from me with a grin on his face.

"About time you noticed!" He said. "You realize we came here to have fun, right?"

"What was that for?" I asked.

"To get your attention."

I shook my head.

"You could have done so a different way. You know, like shaking my shoulder or calling my name."

"I know! But I like this approach better!" Jr. was about to splash me with more water and I tried to get out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough and ended up getting hit. He saw this and started laughing. "I think you forgot that I don't miss!"

"Hey, stop that!" I said while laughing.

"Make me!"

I was once again splashed by water. After being hit I looked up at Jr. again, seeing that he was waiting to see what I would do as he had a grin on his face. I grinned as a plan formulated inside my head before getting up and walking away from the water's edge.

"What, you're giving up already?!" He yelled out to me.

I could tell that my walking away wasn't what he expected. At the last second I quickly turned around and started running towards Jr. His eyes widened when he saw this and started running away through the water.

"You better run!" I yelled as I chased after him.

I couldn't help but laugh as I chased Jr. He had it coming and he knew it. As the chase continued we ended up running through ankle deep water some ways away from the others. I was getting closer to Jr. to the point that I could just reach out and grab the back of his vest with my hand. I was about to catch him when I suddenly tripped and in the process I ended up running into Jr., taking him down with me as we fell to the sandy ground. After landing on the ground I found that I Jr. was underneath me, the left side of my face laying on his back and I couldn't help but feel my face heat up. I suddenly heard Jr. start laughing which confused me.

"Looks like you win." He said once he finished laughing. "It was still fun."

"It was. I didn't hurt you, did I?" I asked, quickly getting up so I wasn't laying on top of him. I ended up sitting next to him.

"You didn't hurt me. It'll take more than that to hurt me!" He started getting up and sat next to me as well. I saw that his face had some sand on it and I couldn't help but start laughing, causing him to look at me confused. "What's so funny?"

"You have some sand on your face!" I eventually managed to calm down. "Here. Let me get it off."

Using my hand I started to wipe the sand off Jr.'s face, careful not to get any in his eyes in the process. After I got the last bit of sand off his face I took my hand away and gave him a smile.

"There. It's gone now."

Jr. returned the smile, but it was short-lived when his face gave off a serious expression.

"Ayame, could you close your eyes…for a minute?" He asked.

I was confused as to why but I did so. It was quiet as neither of us said anything and I started to wonder what it was he was doing, but I didn't ask.

"Hey, hey, hey! Break it up!"

I eyes shot open and our heads darted in the direction the voice came from, only to see Lilith standing nearby with her hands on her hips as she stared at us. The pose she stood in and the look on her face seemed to show that she disapproved of something we were doing and I immediately felt confused. Why was she looking at us like that?

I looked back at Jr. and noticed that his face was only a few inches away from mine and again I felt confused. What had he been doing before Lilith spoke? Both he and Lilith continued to stare at each other (the former having narrowed his eyes) and I assumed that they must had been talking to each other telepathically since they were both U.R.T.V.s, but what was it that they were talking about?

_(Jr.'s POV)_

It was after Ayame wiped the sand that had been on my face off when she took her hand away and gave me one of her smiles that I loved seeing.

"There. It's gone now." She told me.

I returned her smile with one of my own, but it didn't last long since I realized how close we were and my face became serious. An idea had suddenly came into my head and I thought that I would be able to do it.

"Ayame, could you close your eyes…for a minute?" I asked. I hoped this worked…

I could see the confusion in Ayame's eyes but then she closed her eyes. It worked! Was today my lucky day or something? I didn't say anything and neither did she. I decided to push my luck and started to slowly bring my face closer to Ayame's, closing my eyes as the distance between us started to get smaller with each passing second.

"Hey, hey, hey! Break it up!"

I opened my eyes and quickly turned my head to where the voice had came from and my eyes widened when I saw Lilith standing nearby, staring at us with her hands on her hips. Her body language clearly told me that she didn't like what I had been so close to doing.

"_Dammit,__Lilith! Why'd you have to interrupt?! I was so close!_" I thought, narrowing my eyes as I spoke with her telepathically.

"_Sorry, bro. But I'm not about to let you get away with 'that' that easily!_" She replied. I could hear the smirk in her voice, which she didn't show physically on her face. "_If I did, you wouldn't have a challenge! Besides, she doesn't even have a clue as to what you were doing, anyways._"

"_Are you trying to make this difficult for me?!_"

"_Yep! Too bad, though. 'Cause I almost felt like letting you get away with it, too._"

"_You damn liar! You just told me that you wouldn't let me get away with it so easily not so long ago!_"

"_It called 'getting your hopes up,' retard! Deal with it!_"

She then ended our telepathic conversation as she walked over to where Ayame and I were sitting.

"We got an assignment." She said bluntly.

_(Ayame's POV)_

After Lilith told us about the assignment she walked away from us. I turned to look at Jr. again as he did the same.

"Why did you tell me to close my eyes?" I asked.

I watched as Jr.'s face turned red and he turned to the side, looking at the ground.

"N-no reason!" He replied, sounding slightly nervous. He got up and held his hand out to me, which I took as he helped me up. "We gotta get going. We finally have an assignment after so long."

"Okay."

Everyone quickly changed out of their swimsuits, got on our normal attire and left to get back to the Durandal. But I still couldn't help but wonder what it was that Jr. was trying to do.

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ATE: This is the end of chap. 1. Jr.'s swimsuit in this story is actually from the Xenosaga III game, and trust me it wasn't very easy to describe, along with his normal outfit. Ayame's outfit wasn't easy for me to describe either, despite having drawn what it would look like on her before starting this story.

Anyways, Please Review! :)


	3. Chapter 2

ATE: I finally got chap 2 finished. And I have good news too! Yesterday I had finally passed my learner's test and will be getting my learner's permit in the mail. And it was the third time I've taken the test too! I'm actually glad I took that driver's ed class when I did, since it really helped big time. I would like to thank and The Duelist of Dawn for their reviews on this story so far. They really made me happy. Well enough about that. I'm betting you all are wanting to read the story, so enjoy.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

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Chapter 2

_(Jr.'s POV)_

I sat inside the E.S. Asher at the weapon controls while chaos sat in the navigation controls. Along with the Zebulun (with MOMO and Ziggy), the Reuben (with Jin), and the Elias (with Ayame and Lilith) we were escorting the Elsa to our destination.

Earlier when we had gotten back from our trip to the beach we had gotten a call from Juli Mizrahi, asking us to investigate an unknown object that had appeared. We had agreed to do it and we managed to get everyone else (MOMO, Ziggy, Jin, and chaos) to join us. Ayame had wanted to come as well as Lilith (since she didn't have a choice but to come for obvious reasons).

At the moment I had two communication monitors in front of me: one from Gaignun who was currently on Fifth Jerusalem (and has been for some time), and the other being from Mary and Shelley on the Durandal.

"The Parliament and the military both have their hands full dealing with Ormus." Gaignun explained. "And we can't ignore a request from Committee Member Mizrahi."

"Nah, don't worry about it." I said. "We're getting bored anyway. It'll be a nice change of pace. Right?"

"That's right!" Mary agreed.

Truthfully it was a nice change of pace. Although I'm still disappointed that our beach trip had been cut short.

"_And the fact that Lilith wouldn't have been able to interrupt and I would have been able to--_"

"It's unofficial, but we have information that an Ormus fleet is headed there as well." Shelley said as she looked up.

"Either there's something there that Ormus needs or maybe--" I trailed off.

"Just because we don't know what it is, doesn't mean they don't." Gaignun stated

"Either way, if we make direct contact, we're sure to find out something. Right?"

"I envy your attitude. But I wish you'd think a little more about my position."

"Oh, well, that's the Little Master for you." Mary stated, a smile on her face.

"_You better believe it!_" I thought.

"The matter is surrounded by sensitive political issues. If I could, I'd go with you, but I can't leave Fifth Jerusalem for a while. Take care of the place while I'm gone, you two. If he gives you any trouble, don't hesitate to scold him."

"You got it!"

"Understood."

I rolled my eyes as the transmission with Gaignun ended, letting the communication monitor with Mary and Shelley open wider with the absence of the former monitor.

"Hmph. Like he really envies me. He's dumped all the hard stuff on us." I said in mock complaint. "I'm going to make him write all the reports when this is done."

"_That doesn't even sound like a bad idea at all._" I thought. "_But what's up with Gaignun being on Fifth Jerusalem for so long. It's been like this since last year…_"

"Little Master, are you really going to be okay with just the Elsa?" Mary asked. "Wouldn't it be a good idea for us to go, too?"

"Don't worry. It's just gonna be reconnaissance, so Elsa's small size is better suited. Just keep the Durandal in the back for support. Anyway, we've got E.S.s. There's nothing to worry about."

"Little Master, I don't mean to dampen your enthusiasm, but large scale Gnosis appearances have been detected in that region of space. Please take appropriate caution." Shelley stated.

"I know. We're almost there. I'll contact you later."

With that I ended the transmission and sighed as I leaned back against the seat I was in. Sometimes Mary and Shelley worry too much, but I'm completely used to it now. I'm not exactly worried about this investigation and the fact that there are Gnosis in this region.

"_But I am worried about Ayame._" I thought as I looked over at the E.S. Elias that wasn't far from us.

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In the ruins of Planet Michtam Margulis stood on top of a ruined building, his back turned to Pellegri as she stood behind him. They both glanced at the building that towered over the remains of what had once been their home.

"Margulis, I've put Richard and Hermann in charge of dealing with the Federation fleet moving towards Rennes-le-Château." She said.

"Hmph." He closed his eyes. "They seem to be highly compatible with the Vessels of Anima."

"Yes. The Federation will be unable to offer any real resistance against E.S. craft. This should keep them quiet for a while."

"Hmm."

Pellegri seemed to noticed Margulis' behavior and couldn't help but feel concerned.

"What's wrong? You're not yourself. Are you feeling sentimental after returning to our homeland?"

Margulis turned around so that he was facing the woman.

"Pellegri, what do you see before you?" He asked. "Michtam, the mummified world that spreads before our eyes. This is what is left of the birthplace of Ormus."

"A world destroyed eighteen years ago, by Federation barbarians who foolishly unleashed the Zohar."

Margulis turned around to gaze at the ruins.

"Yes. It is our homeland, wiped from the records, in order to cover up the Federation's mistakes."

"But why are we here now?" Pellegri asked. "What lies on this world ruled by death and Gnosis? Isn't our goal to return to Lost Jerusalem?"

"Everything is the will of Lord Heinlein. It is not for us to know." He said as he turned to face the blonde woman again. "He had stated that this world will rise again. Then it must mean that it will. Already, Rennes-le-Château has returned."

"The holy land of Rennes-le-Château. Our cradle, which once existed on Lost Jerusalem, where our blessed Saint sleeps."

"If the reappearance of the tomb heralds the revival of our homeland, then we must protect our holy land at all costs."

"Reporting, sir!" An Ormus soldier approached them. "A Kukai Foundation vessel is approaching the region in question. It appears to be a Lohengrin-class freighter."

Margulis grinned evilly.

"Hm, Helmer's dogs." He chuckled slightly. "Perhaps I'll meet him again. Prepare the Prodigium for launch! We're going to Rennes-le-Château!"

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_(Ayame's POV)_

Everyone was piloting their E.S.s as we escorted the Elsa through space. In the distance I could see what looked like a halved-planet, but it was hard to make out what it looked like due to how far away we were from it.

Before we had set out on the investigation we had met the others after not seeing them for some time. Along with that everyone (minus Ziggy) wore new outfits.

chaos wore a long sleeved dark blue shirt underneath a short sleeveless yellow, blue, and gray jacket, along with gray and yellow gloves on his hands. He wearing white baggy pants with blue lines on the sides, which was held up by his belt. On his feet were dark boots and to that end completed his outfit.

MOMO's outfit was long sleeved white blouse and a pink skirt that had a pink pinafore covering her stomach. On her arms were pink gauntlets (I think) while a pink armlet was on her left upper arm. She wore black stockings with a floral design on the left leg and pink shoes on her feet. On her head was a pink beret that had a black ribbon on the back.

Jin's outfit was a green futuristic looking oriental robe with purple and white lines on it. He wore white pants with boots and a red colored sash-like belt with a yin-yang symbol around his waist. I noticed that his once long dark hair had been cut short, but it was still held back in a red hair tie.

"This thing is pretty big!" I heard Jr. say through the external speakers of the Asher.

"More like an asteroid than a rock formation." chaos stated.

"It's 70 kilometers in diameter." Hammer said from where he was inside the Elsa. In my mind I could see the navigator typing at his computer like he always did. "Unable to determine mass due to abnormal gravitational fields."

"Still, these values seem to be rather unusual." Captain Matthews said. "I didn't think anything this size could cause such a gravitational disturbance."

"Gravity roughly IG around the object. But that seems rather strange." Jin said from inside the Reuben. We continued approaching the halved-planet. "Wait! W-What is this?"

I looked at the halved-planet that we were able to get a good look at since we were closer, only to gasp and have my eyes widen when I saw it.

"Whoa! It looks like a large portion of land from somewhere." Jr. said.

"T-This is…I saw this land in one of my visions…!" I said.

"What?" I looked over to where the Asher was when I heard Jr.'s voice. "Ayame, are you saying that this was that mass of land you told me you saw?"

"Yes."

"It could even be the remains of a destructed planet." Ziggy said.

"No. The shape of the underside looks too uniform for that." Jin stated. "It appears to have been artificially cut away from its original mass."

Suddenly I could hear beeping.

"Multiple unidentified craft are approaching!" MOMO said.

Suddenly laser attacks shot out of nowhere and almost hit the Elsa.

"Tony!" Matthews yelled.

"Damn it!" The pilot cursed.

"Is that Ormus?!" Jr. asked. "It's nice of them to greet us!" The Asher flew toward the enemy E.S.s as the Zebulun fires its pod weapons at them from far away. "Captain, continue your approach to the island and collect data! We can handle these guys ourselves." The Asher destroyed a few enemies that were attacking us.

"Little Master! Now wait just a second!" Matthews yelled.

"Is he telling us to go there by ourselves?!" Hammer sound like he was panicking by the tone of his voice.

"No way in hell! We don't get any hazard pay!" Tony said.

Just as Lilith finished off the enemy E.S. we were fighting I noticed that one of the enemy units was charging up its laser rifle to fire at the Elsa, but it never got the chance since the Reuben destroyed it with its sword. The Asher destroyed another enemy E.S. that was trying to escape.

"I'll give you guys a damn escort! Now go do what you're paid to do!" Jr. ordered.

All of our E.S.s got together as a group of six enemy E.S.s got together as well. I used Analysis and learned they were Ceras. I flew at one of the Cera units as Lilith took care of the weapon controls.

Even though it's been a year since I started piloting the Elias, I was literally able to pilot the E.S. and was familiar with it just as I was with the back of my hand. Despite Lilith having said I could start using some of the weapon controls I had told her that I rather stick with piloting the Elias since I was already good at it. I even told her that if I was to use a weapon while in Angel Mode, I would have a hard time focusing on channeling my powers through the E.S. and on maneuvering at once. Lilith had understood when I explained this to her and she agreed that Angel Mode had helped us out countless times in battle, but told me that I should warn her about doing so beforehand. Speaking about Angel Mode, I had mastered the ability to the point that I could transform into it just by simply thinking of it.

We soon finished the battle as the Asher took out the last Cera unit, flying over next to the Zebulun once he was finished.

"How's the Elsa?" Jr. asked.

"It's safe." MOMO answered. "It's gathering data at coordinates KZ255, Y724."

"Okay. MOMO, Ayame and Jin, you go guard the Elsa."

"Right!"

"Roger!" Jin replied.

"Will do!" I said.

I followed the Reuben and the Zebulun as they flew towards the Elsa. As I made my way over to the Elsa, I couldn't help but feel worried about Jr.

"_Please be okay…_" I thought.

"He'll be fine."

I looked down to where Lilith sat below me. She didn't have her head turned to me (which I was glad since if she were, I would end up staring at the new spiked collar that was around her neck that she had gotten along with the spiked wristbands on her arms), but I knew she was talking to me. It was as if she knew what I had been thinking just now.

"Huh?" Was my intelligent response.

"Look. I understand how you feel at the moment." She said.

"…" I looked down at my right hand, suddenly finding it interesting.

"It's okay to admit you're worried. But you don't need to worry about him at the moment. This is Red we're talking about! He has chaos with him so he'll be fine."

"Thanks, Lilith." I smiled slightly.

"No problemo! Beside, you worry about him too much."

I could feel my face heat up, but it was short-lived when a black E.S. suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It tried to slash at the Zebulun, but the pink E.S. managed to block the attack.

"Well, well." I heard a male voice say from the black E.S. as the Zebulun backed away. "Your inexperience…is beginning to show!"

The black E.S. slashed at the Zebulun, causing it to get knocked back into the Reuben as the E.S. caught it. I managed to fly over to where the Zebulun and Reuben were after witnessing what just happened.

"Are you okay, MOMO?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm okay." She answered.

"Is that a new model?!" I saw the Asher fly past us as Jr. spoke. "MOMO, Ayame, stay back. I'll take him down!" The Asher dashed towards the black E.S. with a blade attack, but the enemy evaded to attack. "What?!"

The black E.S. struck the Asher and threw three kunai looking missiles at the dark blue E.S., but the Asher's lifted up its shield arm just in time to protect it from the attack. The enemy started flying towards the Asher and was about to attack it when the Reuben intercepted the black E.S., the two mechs clashing blades from the swords they wielded.

"A black E.S. Its agility…" Jin said after backing away.

The two E.S.s clashed swords a couple more times.

"This swordsmanship… Uzuki!" I realized who the male voice belonged to. It was Margulis!

The Reuben backed away from the black E.S. after having clashed swords. We all joined together with Jin.

"I thought that was you, Colonel. This location must mean a great deal, due to the fact that you've come all this way to join us."

"And what if it does?" Margulis asked. "It's not a phenomenon you can handle and you'll never understand its meaning. I'm going to send you and your E.S.s right to your graves!"

He then pointed his sword at us and the fight started. I used Analysis to learn that the black E.S. was called the Levi.

"Let's see how far my blades will go against you!" Jin said, and I knew he was preparing to attack.

And just as I thought the Reuben flew over to the Levi and slashed at it, the latter having blocked some blows. The Asher then used its cannon as the Zebulun shot lasers at the black mech. The Levi retaliated by shooting missiles at us and I was able to maneuver in time to avoid getting hit by the attack. The Reuben made its next move by slashing its sword against the Levi.

"I'll show you the difference between me and you!" Margulis yelled.

I knew in my mind that Margulis was going to attack. I flew some distance away from the others so I could safely execute my next move.

"Ayame, what the hell are you doing?!" Lilith asked. "You only do this unless…"

I nodded.

"That's right." I answered. "I'm going into Angel Mode."

I closed my eyes and thought of transforming into Angel Mode. I knew it worked when I felt my powers flowed to every inch of my body and could feel my hair lifting off my back. After having transformed into Angel Mode so many times in the past, the transformation now seemed to go faster than before, only taking a few seconds for it to be complete. I opened my eyes and I could see space through the nonexistent eyes of the Elias as if they were my own, immediately telling me I was one with the E.S. I piloted.

I have learned that while piloting the Elias in Angel Mode, the E.S.'s speed and strength increased with the aid of my powers. Originally, I hadn't been able to pilot the Elias in Angel Mode for a long time but after having used the ability more during E.S. battles in the past I've been able to increase the endurance of how long I could hold it until I would have to revert back to normal. But even after using it so many times in E.S. battles I still ended up being exhausted afterwards, just not as much as I used to when I first started. Even I knew I would be exhausted after this battle was over.

Along with my physical appearance changing, the appearance of the Elias also changed as well.

"That form. Chosen one! Is it really you?" I heard Margulis say, as clearly as if we were all standing in a room talking to each other.

"And if I am?" I asked.

"Hmph. If only you joined Ormus. We would've been able to find Lost Jerusalem with your help!"

I shook my head.

"The only flaw to your plan is that I don't know or remember where it is. So your effort has been wasted."

I flew over to the Levi and disappeared, only to reappear behind the black E.S. and slash it with the wide blue beamed sword that was one of the Elias' weapons. I managed to back away in time before Margulis could retaliate.

"Colonel, what is Ormus so concerned about?" Jin asked. "What lies asleep in this place?"

"I have nothing else to say to you. You should be ashamed of your ignorance!" Margulis charged the Levi towards the Reuben. "Now it's time for you to die!!"

The Reuben brought its sword up to block the Levi's blade from causing damage. Just after exchanging blows a bright light suddenly appeared.

"What's this?"

"What?"

"MOMO, what's happening?" Ziggy asked.

"It's a space-time transfer." MOMO answered. "An anomaly has manifested around the landmass. Imaginary number values increasing! The phenomenon's surface is rotating in reverse phase!"

The Asher arrived nearby.

"Jin, you have to get out of here now!" chaos cried.

The Reuben flew away from the landmass, but a grenade that the Levi at thrown near the E.S. exploded, causing it to drift towards the black E.S. The Levi grabbed the Reuben from behind and placed its sword around its neck.

"You won't get away from me that easily, Uzuki!" Margulis yelled in rage. Suddenly the Elsa rammed into the Levi and the black E.S. to release its grip on the Reuben. "Do not interfere!"

The Levi threw its sword at the Elsa's boosters, causing the ship's boosters to get severely damaged as it slowed down.

"No!" I cried.

"Captain!" Jin cried.

"Hurry, you must escape!" Jr. yelled.

"They headed for the Holy Land! How dare they!" Margulis started rushing towards the light. Suddenly I heard him gasp as he suddenly stopped. "But, I… Your Eminence! How can you say that? The blessed Saint sleeps in that land." Blessed Saint? "What was that?! Don't tell me you've already acted?" Who was he talking to? "Yes, Your Eminence."

Suddenly the Levi flew away from the area.

"Come back here, you bastard!" Jr. yelled as he tried to chase after the Levi.

The Asher tried to intercept the Levi but laser shots were fired at it, the dark blue E.S. barely managed to dodge them. The Asher had no choice but to stop chasing after the black E.S. A mysterious fleet arrived from a gate jump as Margulis flew towards them.

"Uzuki! Unfortunately, we'll have to settle this later." Margulis said. "In the meantime I want you to concentrate on saving your friends. You have got to think of something to help them out at this point. That is, if there is a way to help save their poor souls."

"But, Colonel." Jin said.

I watched as the Elsa got caught in the light. I couldn't stop myself from feeling helpless at the moment as I revert back to normal after using Angel Mode. I felt exhausted and could feel some sweat forming on my skin as my breathing was a little heavy.

"_The Elsa…_" I thought. "_There has to be a way to save them. Please, just hang on for a little while longer._"

------------------------------------------------

_(Jr.'s POV)_

After just seeing the Elsa get caught in that light I immediately contacted the Durandal. After just having gotten through I saw that a communication monitor of not just Mary and Shelley from the Bridge, but another of Jin from the Reuben.

"Mary, can you locate the Elsa's position?!" I asked.

"We're on it. Wait a sec." Mary said. She looked to one of the 100-Series Realians that were on the Bridge. "How are we? Did you trace it?"

"IFF lost! Unable to determine the Elsa's location!" The 100-Series answered.

"Were they shot down?!" Shelley asked.

"No way! Besides, we didn't detect any explosions." Mary answered.

"Regardless of what happened, we won't be able to learn anymore from here. Let's hurry to Little Master's location."

"Yeah."

"_At least we won't be stranded in space…_" I thought.

"Hear that, Little Master? Wait just a little bit." Mary said.

"Yeah, gotcha. Please hurry. Jin! How's it look over there?"

"I'm afraid the Reuben's sensors won't be able to show us any more." Jin said. "We'll have to wait for the Durandal's arrival."

"Dammit." I said, feeling frustrated. "Just be okay guys."

* * *

ATE: I'm sorry about this chap being short. And it was still hard to describe chaos, MOMO, and Jin's outfits in the game despite having looked at them as I wrote this chap. I think it's going to be interesting writing the next chap, since I'm writing what happening to the others instead of what's happening to Shion (like the Durandal arriving to Fifth Jerusalem). I've placed a poll concerning this story in may profile and is about what name Ayame will choose when she gets her memories back. If you plan on voting, go to my profile page and choose which name she should keep.

Anyways, Please Review! :)


	4. Chapter 3

ATE: I was finally able to post this chap up. I originally planned on posting it earlier, but I had to go to work today. If you remember playing Xenosaga III you'll remember when chaos first contacted Shion after the others just arrived on Fifth Jerusalem via the Durandal, and that he said (and I quote) "They made us wait quite a while during entry. It was hard trying to calm down Jr.," then you'll understand what this chap's about. I had recently thought of the possible scenario and adding Ayame into the mix resulted in this (to some extent), so in a way, I wrote something that would bridge the gap between the time before and when the other meet Shion. Enjoy.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or the song 'Please Call My Name' by Yuki Kajiura. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

Warning: Wait! Why am I telling you a warning already? I'm not going to spoil anything! You're just going to have to read and find out what it is! Although I'll tell you that there is more than one warning.

* * *

Chapter 3

After we arrived in the Durandal we had gone to the Bridge where a worried Mary and Shelley greeted us. We had talked to them to see if we could find some way to help the Elsa, and Ziggy came up with the idea that we could contact Shion at Vector.

"It wouldn't hurt to ask." Jr. said, which we all agreed to.

Jin had then told us that Shion had quit her job at Vector, but that didn't mean we couldn't contact the company in order to find her. That was what we did and we learned that Shion was going to Fifth Jerusalem to meet with Allen (who was now Chief of First Division since the woman left). Believe it or not this was good news, both ways.

I left the Bridge for the Park Area (accompanied by Lilith, of course) so I could take care of the irises. After arriving, I knelt down in front of the flowers and I couldn't help but noticed how exhausted I felt after having transformed into Angel Mode when we fought Margulis. I've never been this exhausted after using my powers before, so why now? Was it because I hadn't transformed into Angel Mode for some time?

"Are you okay, Ayame?" I heard Lilith ask. I could her the concern in her voice that she wouldn't have expressed in front of the others if they were around.

"I'm fine. Just a little tired, that's all." I told her.

After I had watered the irises I heard footsteps come over to where I was and I knew it was Lilith since I felt her place her hand on my shoulder. I turned to face her and could see the concern in her green eyes as she stared at me.

"C'mon. Let's sit down for a bit."

She gave me a small smile which I returned before we got up. Lilith started guiding me over to one of the benches in the Park Area and we sat down on it. She held me in an embrace while using her free hand to stroke my hair. It was soothing when she did this and the way she did it felt very familiar. Almost like…

"_Mom…?_" I thought.

I don't know why, but I knew it felt familiar even with amnesia. I may be recalling it subconsciously in my mind, but I can't pinpoint where exactly. I truly think my Mom may have done this when I was younger, but I wasn't able to recall the memory at all.

I know we all have memories that we don't like to remember (like what Jr. said about 'names tending to link themselves to memories, both good and bad'), and I think there may be some memories I don't wish to remember, myself. But over the past year, I've learn that your past makes you who you are at present. When the time comes when I finally remember who I am, I'll know that I must accept my past and memories, regardless if I have regretted many things I've done in most of my life and how painful they might be. I would accept the good and bad memories in my life and be able to look back on them without being afraid to face them. I know I can do it, because I'll have my friends to help me.

"Looks like we finally gated out." Lilith suddenly said.

I looked up at the window and saw that we were near a planet that had a tall station that reached all the way into space.

"When did we gate in?" I asked, looking up at her.

"When we were walking to the Park Area." She then pointed to the planet below us. "You see that planet? That's Fifth Jerusalem. And that…" She now pointed to the tall station. "…is the Federation Orbital Space Port. That's where we'll be docking the Durandal soon."

"We should get to the Bridge."

Lilith gave me a concerned look.

"Do you think you'll be up to it?"

"I'll be okay, Lilith. It's nothing I can't handle."

We got off the bench we were sitting on and started making our way to the Bridge. After riding the elevator platform up to the top my eyes widened when I saw what was taking place before me. I watched as Jr. seemed to be irritated, fuming with anger as I could hear him muttering curses and profanities. I could see Ziggy covering MOMO's ears in order to prevent her from hearing Jr.'s 'speech'. I turned to chaos who was standing near the elevator platform and gave him a questioning look, which he immediately understood.

"Jr.'s been this way ever since we arrived." chaos told me.

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"The people have had us waiting for some time already. Usually during entry it doesn't take this long, but for some reason it's taking longer than it should."

"It's likely because of the size of the Durandal."

"Probably." He nodded. "We've tried to calm him down, but you can obviously see we didn't get very far in doing so."

I sighed quietly, but not in an irritated way. After spending a year with him and the crew of the Durandal I was aware that he would act like this sometimes when some things happened (and the only reason he would act this way at the moment was because he was extremely worried about the Elsa and her crew and wanted to help them ASAP). Over time I've learned that I shouldn't be afraid when Jr. acted this way and had discovered that I should have a calm demeanor when approaching him in order to for him to calm down himself.

I calmly started to approach Jr. as he continued fuming with impatience.

"Jr." I called calmly.

Jr. turned his head to face me when he heard my voice calling him, but his irritated face didn't decrease much. I knelt down in front of him and placed my hands on his shoulders as I stared into his blue eyes, showing him that I wasn't afraid of him.

"You need to calm down." I started. "I know you're worried about the Elsa and her crew, we all are. But throwing a tantrum isn't going to speed up the waiting process. You know this, as well as I do." I looked to Mary who stood nearby behind Jr. "Mary, do you think you can take care of things while we're gone?"

"Why, yes." She answered, winking at me. I immediately felt confused as to why she winked at me, but I didn't pay much mind to it at the moment.

"Thank you." I turned to look at my bodyguard. "Lilith, you don't need to come with me this time, okay?" I watched as Lilith nodded, understanding what I meant. I stood up and took Jr.'s hand in mine. "Come on, Jr. Let's go."

I started leading Jr. over to the elevator platform and it was quiet as we rode it down. I led him through the Residential Area to my room and we went inside. Once inside I turned to him, seeing that his expression calmed down somewhat from the irritated look he had worn earlier. I wrapped my arms around him and held him close to me.

"Jr., it's going to be okay. We'll be able to save the Elsa soon with Shion's help."

I could feel Jr. wrap his arms around my waist and heard him sigh deeply as if to relieve the stress he was possibly feeling at the moment.

"Sorry for the way I acted earlier…" He said as he held me tighter. "I still find it strange how you're able to calm me down whenever I'm like that. You haven't been talking to Gaignun recently, have you?"

I couldn't help but smile as I shook my head.

"No, nothing like that at all. It's something I've been able to learn over time."

"Well, you certainly know how to keep me in check."

He gave me a small smile, which I returned. I suddenly felt my head ache slightly and held it with one of my hands.

_I saw our E.S.s with the addition of the E.S. Dinah among us as we flew through the hypersphere that had formed around the Floating Landmass. I watched as the E.S.s approached the Elsa, seeing that the ship and her crew were okay._

"Ayame, what's wrong?!"

The vision along with the slight headache I had suddenly disappeared and I lifted my head to looked at Jr., a worried look on his face as he stared at me.

"I just had another vision." I told him. "The Elsa. We're going to be able to make it in time to save them. They're okay."

"Really?" Jr. asked, a surprised yet hopeful look in his eyes.

"Yes."

I let go of Jr. and went over to sit on the side of my bed, patting the spot next to me to my left for him to sit. He came over and sat next to me as I wrapped my arms around him and I held him close to me again to the point that he leaned on me slightly. I started humming the song 'Please Call My Name' to him as I stroke the back of his head like Lilith had done earlier to me. As I finished I could hear Jr.'s breathing become slower and I looked down to see that his eyes were closed.

"Are you tired, Jr.?" I asked him.

I watched as Jr.'s eyes opened as he looked up at me with slightly tired blue eyes.

"Yeah." He replied quietly.

"Do you want me to take you to your room?"

I watched as he shook his head.

"Can I stay here?"

"Of course." I said quietly, giving him a soft smile.

I helped him get on top of my bed so he could lay down. I then went over to his feet and started taking his boots off so he could rest comfortably and placed them at the foot of the bed. I took my shoes off as well and placed mine with his before coming around to the other side of the bed. I got on top of my bed and laid next to Jr. as I watched him close his eyes, indicating that he had just fallen asleep. I got a little closer and pulled him close to me with my arms wrapped around his sleeping form. I closed my eyes as well and decided to rest due to the exhaustion I had from earlier.

_(Jr.'s POV)_

Some time after closing my eyes I had felt Ayame hold me as I laid on the bed. I was tired, yes, but I was tired enough only to feel somewhat sleepy at the moment.

What had happened on the Bridge wasn't the first time an incident like that had occurred. As much as I hated to admit it (along with being ashamed with myself for doing so) there had been times when I would have a fit just like earlier and truthfully it would take a long time and a lot of effort for me to calm down. But after being with us for a year Ayame had been able to do what no one was able to do (or had a hard time doing). She was able to calm me down as if it were nothing. You could say she had the 'magic touch' when it came to doing so. Hell, she was able to calmly approach me and look me in the eye without showing fear whatsoever, something people weren't normally able to do when I was in such a mood due to my behavior scaring them shitless.

Ayame had clearly showed me that she wasn't scared to confront me when I was in a rage since the first time she managed to calm me down. Personally I believe that my feelings for her and her presence were contributing factors that help me to be able to listen to her. In a way, she was my voice of reason at times.

Earlier when Ayame was calming me down I had noticed something the others didn't seem to see at all. I noticed that she appeared to be exhausted ever since we came back to the Durandal, more so than usual. Ayame was good at hiding it from the others, but not good enough to hide it from me. I've been around her enough to know when something was wrong. But was she exhausted from using Angel Mode after not using it for some time? I was only able to get her to fall asleep by playing possum a few minutes ago, and I did a good job since she actually thought I was tired.

I wrapped my arms around her in my 'sleep,' taking in her scent. Despite everything she did Ayame always smelled like the Japanese irises that she had spent most of her time taking care of when she was around them. I knew she enjoyed taking care of them and I had witness how much when she had started planting them in the Park Area. But she had only planted half of the amount of bulbs that had been in the pack when she started, and to this day I still wonder why she did that. I enjoyed this scent and I've always thought it suited Ayame.

"_I'm glad she's resting now._" I thought. "_At least I have an excuse to be this close to her. There's no way Lilith will be able to interrupt this moment this time around._"

I opened my eyes to see that Ayame was still asleep and how close we were. Carefully, I started bringing my face closer to hers but at the last second I stopped myself.

"_No! Resist the temptation!_" I thought to myself. "_Now isn't the time to do it. I need to wait longer for the right time._"

As much as I wanted to do it I couldn't. I know I loved her and I wanted her to know just how much just by expressing it through such an action but I couldn't, not yet. I at least want her to be conscious when I finally decide to do it. But for now, this will have to do. I know I can be impatient at times, but I'll wait as long as it takes for her to be ready to understand. I closed my eyes so I could fall asleep, for real this time.

* * *

ATE: I'm sorry that this chap is shorter than the last one, but I didn't what to add more of the main story yet. Remember this is what you would call a filler to explain what happened to the others while Shion was doing her business on Fifth Jerusalem. I had this idea for a while since posting chap 2. As you can see, the relationship between Ayame and Jr. is developing a bit. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this chap and story so far.

Just a reminder to everyone that's reading this story so far. The poll concerning Ayame is still up in my profile and the number of votes will determine which name she'll choose at the end of this story. The option to vote will only last before the last chap is posted, so vote while you still can. So if you want to vote go to my profile page and choose which name she should choose once she gets her memories back. The choices are:

1) Andrea (her real name)

2) Ayame (her new name)

Please Remember To Review! :)


	5. Chapter 4

ATE: I finally updated after so long. It took me awhile to get this idea, but thanks to my friend we were able to get started yesterday. I just finished it today so everyone could have something to read. I wanted to get this chap finished before I go back to school this upcoming wednesday and it looks like I was able to do so. I added a bit of the main story plot in this chap, so enjoy reading it.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 4

Gaignun woke up to find himself in a place with violet waves. He stood up, looking around him in order to find something familiar.

"Where am I?" He asked.

His eyes widened in fear when he saw the familiar sonic wave that had plague his memories for fifteen year coming near him.

"What? G-get away! Stop! Stay back!" He shut his eyes tightly while holding his head. "Stop! Stop it! Stop it! Don't touch me!"

Another sonic wave came near him, whispering words to him in an inhuman sounding voice. He continued keeping his eyes closed as he held his hands to his ears tightly to block out the sound.

"Stop it! Don't talk to me! I refuse to acknowledge you!" He raised his voice. "Stop talking to me!"

Again the wave came near him and he soon laid on the non-existing ground in fetal position.

"Stop it! I won't do what you want! I-I…" He sounded like he was about to cry. "U…U-DO…"

------------------------------

"…Yuriev. Dr. Yuriev?"

"Hmm?"

Dmitri Yuriev sat at his desk in a office that was dimly lit by the glow of the monitor screens. Standing nearby was a woman wearing a white, purple and red female uniform. A purple headband rested in her well kept short orange hair. Black leather gloves were worn on her hands while purple boots were on her feet, black tights covering her legs. Hanging on the left side between her chest and upper left arm hung a gun in a holster, while another holster was wrapped around her right thigh.

"Is something wrong? Are you not feeling well?" She asked, sounding concerned.

"I'm just having some trouble getting along with my son." Dmitri replied. "I'm fine. Please continue."

"Yes, sir. Currently, the operational experiments are underway in the research ward." She explained as he looked over to her. "And the Doctor wishes to give you a report."

Dmitri got up from his seat and turned to the woman.

"I see. Accompany me, Citrine."

"Yes, sir."

Dmitri left the office, followed by Citrine as they made their way to the research ward. Upon getting there the two could see the scientist and engineers working hard on a huge machine. In front of a console was a man with dark red hair and wore sunglasses on his eyes sat in a wheelchair that, instead of standing on wheels, hovered in the air, not restricting him to the ground that everyone who was able to use their legs walked on. Dmitri and Citrine approached the man.

"So, you've finally decided to come listen to me, Dmitri Yuriev." The man said.

"I see you're as unfriendly as ever, Sellers." Dmitri countered. "I don't have much time. Just tell me the results."

"You're as bad as Margulis. You 'commanders' are so inflexible. Anyway, the start-up experiment has already succeeded. The problem is--"

"What?"

"Looks at these values."

Sellers turned to look at the computer screen in front of him as Dmitri and Citrine glanced at the information as well.

"The pulse from the temporal lobe is unstable." Citrine noted. "Perhaps there's a problem in the link with the pilot."

"This is based on the prototype recovered from the ruins of Miltia. It was originally calibrated for an Ormus priest. So these results are unsurprising. Same as the power supply. It was designed to match the Original Zohar." He explained. "Currently, we're operating it using the spare emulator unit I constructed, but because of it, the output is unstable and link with the pilot is poor."

"Are you saying it won't run?" Dmitri asked.

"Exactly the opposite. It generates too much power, and we're unable to stop it. Federation's technicians are no fools, but Ormus is much more experienced in regards to this. If we at least had Vector participating, the outcome might have been a little different. Why did you remove them from the project?"

"The Lemegeton incident. I'm sure you're aware they were involved in it. I don't know what he's scheming, but I can't allow him to gain top secret information."

"What about the alternative you're using in place of KOS-MOS? Have you determined its origin?" Sellers asked curiously. "It may be another Vector plot."

"I have people working on that now. Even if it was, it's still just an anti-Gnosis weapon. We'll just use it for our own purpose. Now, give me an update on the Merkabah."

"No visible problems with that thing. We've already completed the final calibration. Thanks to the Y-Data you brought."

"Did I hurt your pride?" Dmitri asked, smirking.

"Take that how you like. But I hope you appreciate my work. I painfully reconstructed it by putting the fragments together. It would almost have been faster to build it from scratch. Of course, with the core in this condition, I can't guarantee its safety."

"There's not much time left before the demonstration. I trust you'll have it ready by then."

"Of course. Otherwise, there'd be no point of me being here. By the way, have you found an opponent?" Sellers asked. "You're going to need something impressive to fight this thing."

"Don't worry. That's already been arranged." Citrine stated.

"Oh?" Sellers was curious.

"It's the perfect opponent to silence the fools that support Vector." Dmitri said.

-----------------------------

_(Ayame's POV)_

I opened my eyes after what seemed like only a few minutes. I felt something warm and in my daze I looked down to find myself holding Jr. as he slept, his arms wrapped around me as well. I felt my face heat up slightly but I didn't really feel embarrassed at the moment. I suddenly saw something but this time it was a flashback.

_I stood in what appeared to be a kitchen with the familiar form of Katie standing nearby. Upon looking at her I could see that she had her hands on her hips as she stared at me speculatively. _

"_Did you preset the oven?_" _She asked me._

"_Yeah, yeah, teach! I've done this before in class!_" _I replied._

"_That what you said last time when you set off every smoke alarm in the house!_"

"_But that was my first time doing it! I have an excuse!_"

_Katie then came over to me with the bowl that had the batter she was still mixing. She stared at the baking pan that I held in my hands and narrowed her eyes._

"_Did you even put cooking spray in the pan?_" _She asked questionably._

_I looked down at the pan and tensed when I saw that there wasn't any spray in the pan, but then I realized something._

"_Wait a minute! I just got this pan out! How can you accuse me of forgetting to spray cooking spray in when I just got this out of the drawer?!_"

"_Looks like you saw through my trick. Now spray the cooking spray in the pan so that I can pour the brownie batter in and we can make ourselves some brownies._"

"_Okay, mom. I'll get it, I'll get it! Just chill!_"

_After spraying cooking spray in the pan and placing it in the oven Katie hugged me from behind._

"_Do you know what I am today?_" _She asked jokingly._

"_Uh, is this some sort of trick question?_" _I asked._

"_Answer the question._" _She said in a sing song voice._

"_A mother figure?_"

"_Hell no! I'm a drill instructor! Now do what I say, maggot_."

_We started laughing and then the scene changed to that of me opening the oven and taking the brownies out with my hands covered with oven mittens. I carried the pan over to the counter near the stove and placed it on one of the burners. I turned around and saw an approving look on Katie's face._

"_You did it ______! You made brownies without getting the fire department involved!_" _She said happily._

"_Do you have to make me sound so bad? You're just exaggerating!_" _I complained._

"_I know. But it's fun teasing you!_"

"…_ame?_" _I watched at the flashback faded and the voice seemed to get louder._

"…ame?" I felt like someone lightly shake me. "Ayame, can you hear me?"

I blinked my eyes as I tried to clear my vision. After doing that I saw that Jr. was looking at me with a concerned look.

"You had another flashback, didn't you?" He asked.

"Yes." I then realized that I remembered what was going on in the flashback and smiled. "Come on. Let's go."

I then unwrapped my arms around Jr. as I got off my bed. I came around to the other side where he was and started to drag him off the bed.

"Wait! Where are we going?!" He asked, clearly confused by what I was doing.

"To the kitchen!" I answered excitedly.

I had finally managed to get him off the bed and we were both standing. I started to quickly get my shoes on as he watched me.

"But why?"

"I learned how to cook something from the flashback I just got! I want to see if I can still do it."

Jr.'s eyes seemed to widen before he grinned, finally understanding why I was so excited. He quickly got his boots on and I started dragging him out of my room. After rushing out the door we started making our way to the train where we encounter Lilith just getting off.

"I just came down here to check up on you two." Lilith said. "Just wanted to make sure that a certain someone didn't decide to do something that would get them in trouble…lots of trouble."

"It's okay, Lilith! We're just going somewhere!"

"Let me guess. The kitchen?"

"Wait, how did you…?"

"You can learn a lot of things by just listening."

"Are you saying that…?" Jr. asked.

"What do you think?" Lilith asked.

_(Jr.'s POV)_

"_Wait a minute! Were you actually standing outside the door listening to us when we fell asleep?!_" I asked her telepathically, my eyes wide as I felt my face heat up.

"_Duh! What do you think I do in my spare time? I make sure you're not making any moves on her._" Lilith answered.

"_Is that right?_" I narrowed my eyes.

"_Ya better believe it, bro!_"

"Okay, let's go, Ayame!" I immediately said.

"Wait, we could bring Lilith with us."

"But--"

"Okay." Lilith said calmly.

"_No!!!_" I mentally yelled.

"That's great! Maybe you could help us cook!" Ayame said.

"That wouldn't be a good idea."

"Why?" Ayame had a confused look on her face.

"I burn water."

"But…isn't that impossible?"

"Yeah…that's what the water said."

"I…still don't see how that's possible."

"It means I can't cook."

We then got on the train, while I glared at Lilith as we rode it to where the kitchen was.

_(Ayame's POV)_

We soon arrived at the kitchen after having gotten off the train and I started looking around the place for what I was looking for. I managed to find butter, eggs, sugar, flour, vanilla, and cocoa and placing them out on the counter.

"If you don't mind me asking, just what are we making with all these ingredients?" Jr. asked.

I turned to look at Jr. and couldn't help but smile.

"We're making brownies." I replied.

"Brownies? You can actually make brownies with all this?"

"Yes. There's an oven in this room, right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Could you preheat it to 350 degrees?"

"Sure."

I watched as Jr. went over to the oven and preheat it to the right temperature. I turned to Lilith who was standing in a corner watching us.

"Lilith, could you find a 9 x 13-inch pan for me?" I asked.

"I believe I told you I couldn't cook." She stated.

"I know, but your not cooking anything by finding a pan. You're just getting something, that's all."

"Okay."

I walked away from the counter to find measuring cups, a teaspoon, a mixing bowl, and a spoon to mix everything together. After having found everything I heard Lilith place the pan on the counter close to where I was.

"Thank you."

"No problem."

I stared at the ingredients and the measuring utensils as I thought.

"Let's see…1 ¼ cups of butter, 4 eggs, 2 cups of sugar, 1 ½ cups of flour, 2 tsp of vanilla, and ¾ cup of cocoa…"

"What are you muttering about, Ayame?"

I turned when I heard Jr.'s voice and saw that he was standing next to me, staring at me curiously.

"I was just recalling the right measurements used for the brownies." I answered.

"Do you need any help?"

"Yes. Could you melt the butter after I measure 1 ¼ cups of it?"

"Yeah."

I started unwrapping the butter, placing it in the cup that measured up to 4 cups after cutting it up until I got the right measurement and handed it to Jr. He placed it in a microwave (after I warned him that butter melted quickly in heat) for about 10 seconds before taking it out again. I then measured ¾ cup of cocoa and thanked Jr. when he brought the melted butter over to me. I pulled the mixing bowl over to where I was and stared at it as I remembered the recipe Katie taught me.

_Melt butter and add cocoa; mix. Stir in sugar and blend in the eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla. Stir in flour; mix well. _

I poured the melted butter and cocoa in before mixing them together. After I made sure that the two ingredients were mixed I measured 2 cups of sugar and pulled out 4 eggs before mixing them together (making sure that I blended the eggs in on at a time). Next came the 2 tsp of vanilla and the 1 ½ cups of flour which I made sure to stir everything in well before recalling the next part to the recipe.

_Bake in greased 9 x 13-inch pan for 30 minutes in preheated oven. Let cool on rack, 20 to 30 minutes. Cut into 20 square pieces._

I took the pan and sprayed pan spray in it (after having found it first) before pouring the batter of mixed ingredients into it. It was a good thing that the oven way ready so I carried the pan over to the oven and placed it inside so it could cook.

"So how long will it take for the brownies to cook?" Jr. asked.

"About 30 minutes, at least that's what I remember. Afterwards we're going to have to let them cool for 20 to 30 minutes." I answered.

"It doesn't seem that long." Lilith stated.

"It really isn't."

I went over to the mixing bowl that had leftover batter in it from pouring most of it in the pan, the mixing spoon also having some batter on it as well. I ran my left index finger to pick up some of the batter and was about to taste it.

"What are you doing?" Jr. asked.

"I'm just tasting the batter, that's all." I placed my finger with the batter on it in my mouth and sucked it off before taking it out. I instantly noticed that it tasted good and smiled.

"Are you sure you should be doing that?"

"It's perfectly fine. I remember doing this a lot of times before." I then ran my right index finger to pick up some more batter. "Come and try some, Jr."

I watched as Jr. came over to me and I held out my right index finger to him so he could try some batter. I watched as he seemed to stare at it and I noticed that there was a slight tinge of red on his face.

"It's okay. There's nothing to worry about." I told him.

Jr. seemed hesitant as I watched him bring his hands up and lightly held mine with his warm ones. He pulled my right hand up to his face and I watched his face turned red as he stuck my finger in his mouth, sucking the batter off. I couldn't help but feel my face heat up slightly, but I didn't mind. He pulled my finger out once he was done and a few seconds later he smiled.

"It's good." He said.

"Glad you like it." I looked at the time and noticed how much time had passed. "The brownies should almost be ready to come out soon."

"Really."

"Yep."

A few minutes later I saw that the brownies were finished. I covered my hands with oven mittens so I could pull the pan out after opening the oven. I carefully carried the pan over to the counter where I placed them to cool down for about 20 minutes before using a knife to cut the brownies into 20 squares each. After having cut them into squares I got out a plate and placed the brownies on it now that they were ready to be eaten.

"Do you want to try one, Jr.?" I asked.

"Yeah!" I watched as Jr. took one of the brownies and took a bite out of it, and I could immediately tell he liked it by the look on his face. "These are good."

"Would you like to try one, Lilith?" I asked, looking over to my bodyguard.

"Sure." Lilith started coming over to where Jr. and I were, took a brownies off the plate and took a bite. "These brownies aren't half bad."

I couldn't help but smile as I watched them finish their first brownie and start on a second one. I was glad that I got that flashback when I did, because if I didn't I wouldn't have been able to see both Jr. and Lilith happy.

"Aren't you going to have one as well, Ayame?" Jr. asked.

"Uh…yes. I was just watching to see how you two liked them that's all."

I took a brownie off the plate and tried it. I knew that it was good and that I did a good job making them with the help of Jr. and Lilith. I couldn't help but think back to the flashback and felt a small smile on my face.

"_Thank you, Katie…_" I thought, feeling happy and grateful to the friend I remember having before I woke up 4000 years in the future.

* * *

ATE: Yes, I was thinking of brownies when I first got the idea. And I actually go this recipe from a website that was an easy recipe.

Please Remember To Review! :)


	6. Chapter 5

ATE: Sorry it took so long to update this story. This is what happens when I start school. It gets a little harder to get ideas what with homework and studying for tests and quizzes. And to make matters worse, I had to work today from 12:15 to 8:00 at my job. Well, enough of me bragging about my life. You readers want to read a story and you have your story. So enjoy.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

Warning: There are some spoilers for future chaps, but I try to keep them vague so you don't know what's really happening. Also there is a reference from the Xenosaga II: The Middle story.

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Chapter 5

Sometime soon we finished eating the brownies that I had made and we were all satisfied (even Lilith, despite her outer appearance saying a different story). I took the plate and pan off the counter and started taking it over to the sink that was nearby so I could wash it.

"You don't have to do that, Ayame."

I turned to look at Jr. who was standing to the right behind me as he faced me.

"Is there a problem?" I asked, feeling confused.

"No, there isn't. But you don't have to clean them. You can just leave them in the sink, that's all." He explained.

"I can't do that, Jr." I shook my head.

It was his turned to give me a confused look.

"Why?"

"It just wouldn't feel right to me. I made the mess. Shouldn't I clean it up?"

Jr. stared at me like he couldn't think of anything to say. Speechless, I'm guessing.

"I'm just going to scrub them. It shouldn't take long." I reassured him.

I placed everything in the sink and started scrubbing the pan and bowl clean. I dried my hands after I finished and made my way back over to the others.

"So, what do you plan on doing?" Lilith asked me.

"I was thinking of going to the Park Area to take care of my irises." I replied.

"I'll come too." Jr. said.

"Jr.?" I looked at Jr., surprised by what he said.

"That isn't a problem, is it?" He then smiled. "Besides, I want to see them as well."

"You can come as well, Jr." I couldn't help but smile when I saw his smile.

"Thanks."

Jr. then grabbed my hand and started pulling me out of the kitchen with Lilith following behind us. Every time he did this I was always reminded of the time on Second Miltia when we spotted the clothes store and he pulled me into the place in his excitement.

As we reached the area with the train I felt a slight headache and held my head with my free hand in an attempt to dull the aching. It was when we were about to board when the headache stopped and I took my hand down before Jr. turned to look at me, a smile on his face. I tried to return the smile with one of my own, but it felt like a fake smile to me at the moment and I felt bad.

Some time afterwards we arrived in the Park Area and got off the train, going up the ramp to enter the Park. We made our way over to where my Japanese irises were planted as Jr. let go of my hand.

"They really grew quickly." I heard Jr. say from where he stood next to me. "And they look nice too."

"That's because I take care of them everyday." I said.

"I'm glad I got them for you."

I picked up the watering can nearby with water inside and went over to the Japanese irises. I knelt down in front of them and started water the flowers, making sure that they each got a good amount of water. As I continued watering the irises I could feel sweat forming on my face while my head started to throb, causing me to stop what I was doing.

"Ayame, are you okay?" I heard Jr. ask me.

"I'm…fine…" I replied, my voice (to my surprise) sounding weak.

Suddenly the throbbing in my head suddenly increased to a sharp pain. I felt my grip on the watering can go slack and I heard the sound of it hitting the floor with the water spilling. I could feel myself falling as I heard the worried voices of Jr. and Lilith calling my name before everything went dark.

_(Jr.'s POV)_

I watched Ayame pick up her watering can and knelt down in front of the Japanese irises she had planted as she watered them. As I watched her I noticed that sweat started to form on her face and she suddenly stopped what she was doing.

"Ayame, are you okay?" I asked her.

"I'm…fine…" She replied in a weak sounding voice.

Suddenly Ayame's face contorted in pain as the watering can in her hand fell to the floor along with her collapsing to the floor. The water pooled on the floor as a bit of Ayame's leg got soaked in it.

"Ayame!" I cried (along with Lilith) as I watched what happened, my eyes wide.

I quickly ran over to Ayame's side where she now laid on the floor. Kneeling down, I held her upper half in my arms. What could've caused her to end up like this?! Not too long ago she was perfectly fine! Like she usually was! What was so different this time?!

"Ayame! Ayame, wake up!" I tried shaking her, hoping that she would wake up if I did.

"Outta the way, Red!"

Lilith pushed me out of the way and picked Ayame up in her arms to carry her.

"What are you doing to her?" I asked.

"What's it look like?" Lilith asked. "I'll be taking her back to her room."

"And why are you the one to carry her?"

"You've really forgotten, haven't you?" Lilith gave me a dull look as she stared at me with her green eyes. "The last time I checked, you were physically a short, 4'7 foot, 12 year old boy while chronologically being a 27 year old man. Do the math."

Dammit! She's right. With the way I am now I won't be able to carry Ayame. Despite how old I really am I still had the strength of a 12 year old in this body.

"_If only I were older…_" I thought. "_…then I would be able to--_"

"Are you coming or not, Red?!" Lilith asked.

I looked at Lilith who stood at the doorway, an impatient look on her face as she carried Ayame.

"Y-yeah!"

I followed after Lilith as we made our way back to Ayame's room in the Residential Area of the Durandal. After entering her room Lilith made her way towards bed and placed Ayame on it as I followed closely behind. I sat on the side of the bed staring down at Ayame while Lilith was leaning against a wall (like usual).

I couldn't help but feel very concern for her. What was happening to Ayame? Why was this happening? Did it have something to do with regaining her memories? Did it even have anything to do with her memories? No! It didn't have anything to do with her memories, at least I don't think.

I remembered when me and Ayame where in her a while ago when she had what seemed to be a headache and afterwards she told me she saw a vision of us being able to save the Elsa.

If this where the case, Ayame was seeing the future to some extent, but she couldn't exactly choose which one she wanted to see. But if this really did have something to do with her memories, were there some memories that were painful for Ayame to remember or see?

"_But how is that possible?_" I thought. "_Would her bad memories really be painful for her to remember?_"

_(Ayame's POV)_

_I saw Jr. holding what looked like the White Testament from behind, a red aura around his body._

"_Nigredo! That's not true!" Jr. cried. "We were friends, remember?" _

"_My duty to keep watch over you is over. No, I want it to be over." I could see Gaignun as he spoke to Jr., who looked upset at what he said. Gaignun reverted to his younger self, Nigredo. "I'm not saying goodbye." He said, his voice that of his child incarnation. "Let's play together again sometime. Until then, take care, Rubedo, Albedo…"_

"_Albedo…?" I thought, my eyes widening. "Isn't he…dead…?"_

"_Nigredo!" Jr. yelled, lifting his head up. _

_The imaged changed to show Jr. kneeling on the ground as he slowly lowered his head from it's upward gaze until it was hanging, his blue eyes closed as a look of sadness appeared on his face._

_The area suddenly changed to show the inside of the woman's cabin on the Elsa, the room dark with the absence of light. I looked over to a bed and my eyes widened when I saw myself sitting on it, my head hanged as I heard myself crying. I walked over to where 'I' sat and saw that my face was tearstain along with my eyes being red from crying._

"_Why…?" 'I' asked quietly._

"_Why am I crying?" I thought as I watched myself._

_The area changed to show an observation room. I found myself looking out a window and my eyes widened when I saw what looked like KOS-MOS standing along on a platform!_

"_That's…KOS-MOS?!" I heard the voice of Shion ask, sounding surprised._

"_Are you surprised?" Allen's voice asked. "She looks just like KOS-MOS."_

"_So it isn't KOS-MOS_…_" I thought._

_Now that I think about it there were a few differences between this look-a-like and KOS-MOS. Instead of blue hair, this android had white hair. Instead of pale skin, the skin was darker. Instead of the blue and white outfit, it was replaced with an dark looking outfit with the colors of black and red, completing the difference between the two androids._

"_Development code TP-XX, also known as T-elos. The ultimate, finished unit. A startling advancement in science, as they say." Allen stated._

"_T-elos." Shion voiced her thoughts._

_Suddenly the area changed to what looked like a vast dark room and standing in front of me was the form of a woman with long dark hair, her back facing me. From what I could see she wore a black robe._

"_W-who are you?" I asked, suddenly feeling like I was already in danger._

_The woman slowly started to turn to me and I was able to see that she had red eyes before the image faded._

I suddenly shot up from where I was laying. To my surprise (and confusion) I was back in my room with Lilith leaning against the wall and Jr. sitting on the side of the bed I lay on near me.

"Jr.? Lilith? What happened?" I asked.

"Don't you remember? You passed out." Lilith answered. "Are you sure you've been getting enough sleep at night?" She said the last part jokingly.

"I don't see how sleep has anything to do with me passing out."

"Okay, okay! I'll just leave you two alone for now."

"No. Eavesdropping." Jr. said sternly, looking (and possibly glaring) at Lilith.

"Sorry, Red. No guarantees there."

With that Lilith left the room, leaving Jr. and I alone. Jr. looked back at me and I was surprised when he held me to him tightly (but not tight enough to choke me), my head ended up laying on top of his right shoulder.

"Are you okay, Ayame?" He asked.

"I'm fine." I answered.

"That's what you said last time and you ended up passing out in front of us. Are you sure you're not feeling well?"

Before I could answer Jr. placed his hand on my forehead and I felt my face heat up when I felt the warmth from it.

"_This reminds me of last year, except our roles are reversed._" I thought.

"You feel fine to me." He said, taking his hand away from my forehead. "Just don't pull anything like that again, okay?"

_I was suddenly reminded of last year in MOMO's Encephalon Dive when we had witness the flashback of Albedo learning the truth that he wasn't able to die._

"_Don't you ever pull anything like that again! If you die, you can't come back to life!" Rubedo yelled furiously. _

_I could see the angry look on his face as Nigredo held him back from getting to Albedo, a calm look on his face. But for some reason it felt like I was the one he was looking down at with such anger in his blue eyes and I felt somewhat scared but at the same time I wasn't._

"Ayame?" I looked to Jr., who had a worried look on his face. "Are you okay?"

"Yes." I replied. "I was…just reminded of something, that's all."

"Of what?" He asked, giving me a questioning look.

"Of you." I held onto him, closing my eyes as he did the same for me.

I then thought back to the visions I had earlier. The first two visions left me confused. The third vision explained who the KOS-MOS look-a-like was. And the last one…it left me both confused and scared. Who was that woman…and why did I feel so scared and in danger around her? Was she dangerous…?

* * *

ATE: Well, that ends chap 5 for now. As you can see there are some things happening that you probably noticed. (Note that the following dialogue, in any way, shape, and form, is not owned by me. I don't own 'Xenosaga The Radio Drama Promo' or anything related to that and the user 'Dr. Wilder' on youtube. This was something me and my friend made up after watching these videos on youtube)

Jr.: Hey Allen! Hey Allen! HEY ALLEN!!!

Allen: WHAT JR.?!?!?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!?!?!

Jr.: You're really ugly! Why would Shion see anything in you anyway? Right Gaignun?

Gaignun: I totally agree with you Jr. And I believe Albedo has something to say. Albedo?

Albedo: We are out here in the middle of space, which is full of machines and really weird creatures that are called 'Gnosis'. Now I wouldn't be surprised if you've never heard of Gnosis before, because they are right at this moment in the minority group, but their constant immigration from unknown parts of space has caused lots of riots among the humans in our society, which was immediately followed by whitening and death because of the Gnosis. Oh did I mention they were made out of salt? I know right? Back to you Gaignun.

Gaignun: Yeah. Thanks Albedo. That was informative. And Jr. has to say something.

Jr.: That was stupid and pointless. And it had nothing to do with Allen being ugly! What do you thing, Brown Kid?

chaos: I don't believe in capitalization. They have no proof that it actually works.

Jr.: Wow, that was pointless Brown Kid! Go put on some pants and throw away those gay ass bicycle shorts!

T-elos: And what about me?

Jr.: Just shut up Granny!

ATE: (Winces as she watches) Some very bad things happened to Jr. after his comment, but we're not going to relay them because of how bad they are. Not to mention it looks rather painful.

Shion: 15 years ago...I WAS HAPPY!!!!!

(Everyone stares...)

Ayame: Okay... Anyways, please remember to review.

ATE: And also, the poll deciding Ayame's name is still up in my profile. So far there have only been 7 people to vote. You still have the chance to vote, but it won't last long. So vote while you still can before the last chap comes. :)


	7. Chapter 6

ATE: Sorry it took so long for me to update! Don't be mad at me! I mean, it's been like a whole month since I last updated and know I ended up staying up till 2:00 in the morning by the time I finished this and not to mention that it was 12 microsoft word document pages long to. Some things came up that affected me last month. The first of September was the closes thing to mourning I've ever done in my life and it sorta placed me on hold that whole time. Not to mention that it took me some time to figure out how I would have this chap flow and what should happen and stuff. I had some help from my editoress yesterday which was a good thing. Well, anyways, I'll let you all read the long anticipated chap 6.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga, Subway (eat fresh!), or BT's Theme from .Hack//SIGN (by Yuki Kajiura). I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend/editoress owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 6

A few days passed since we came to Fifth Jerusalem in the Durandal. Today we were finally going to meet up with Shion (chaos had told us that she would be coming) and we were all waiting in the Docking Area near the elevator that we knew Shion would walk out of soon.

At the time Jr. was talking to MOMO, Lilith stood near me, and Ziggy stood to the side, watching them with his arms crossed. I couldn't help but mentally laugh at this.

"_You would think that he were a father figure to her._" I thought.

We were all excited to see Shion (some of us not expressing it so openly as others). It had been a year since we've last seen her and I couldn't help but wonder if she's changed during that time.

I suddenly noticed the sound of the elevator and looked over to it to see Shion walking out of it.

The outfit Shion wore was interesting. She wore a blue and gray jacket that covered her arm and the part that covered her torso came only halfway down near her rib, the collar of it having white fur. Under the jacket was a black tank top with a zipper that was semi-revealing. There was a black choker that came halfway around her neck along with the necklace that she always wore. She wore brown shorts that opened halfway, along with slits on the hips of the shorts. Underneath the shorts (which I was able to make out) were black underwear. On her legs were black stockings that came up to the middle of her thighs and on her feet were futuristic tennis shoes that were the colors blue, black, and white.

Jr., MOMO, and I ran over to Shion (who did the same), while Lilith and Ziggy stayed where they were.

"Hey, Shion! You're looking well!" Jr. greeted excitedly.

"Looks like you're all doing good, too." Shion commented.

"Shion."

My head turned in the direction and saw Jin walk over to where we were.

"Jin?!" Shion sounded surprised. "That's right. I completely forgot you were with them."

"Is that any way to greet the brother you haven't seen in a while?" Jin asked, puzzled. "Everyone else is here. You know, you really should be a little more punctual—"

"Yes, yes. Everyone's here now, right? Let's get started."

"Ha ha ha! You haven't changed a bit, Shion." Jr. said. "Juli and the others are waiting. This way!"

We all started making our way to the Bridge and as we rode the elevator platform up I couldn't help but think. Even though it's been a year since she had seen her brother Shion still didn't get along with Jin. And it made me feel bad.

The elevator platform soon reached the Bridge where Juli, Miyuki, Allen, and Canaan stood waiting for us. I could see Mary and Shelley near the controls where they usually were.

"Shion, have you heard about KOS-MOS?" Juli asked.

"KOS-MOS?" Shion asked surprised. "No. What's going on?"

"Committee Member Mizrahi, I'll tell her." Allen said, his head hanging as if he were guilty. "Chief, they've decided to scrap KOS-MOS."

"Scrap? You can't be serious."

"_They're going to scrap KOS-MOS?_" I thought surprised. "_But that doesn't make sense! The vision I had of KOS-MOS fighting T-elos wouldn't happen if she were._"

"I'm afraid it's true." Juli walked up the controls, while Mary walked down and stood near us. "They made the decision yesterday."

"KOS-MOS…" Shion shook her head, unhappy from what she had been told.

"I understand how you feel, but there's no time to get depressed." Juli said. "I want you to listen carefully to what I'm about to say, and then make a decision."

"Hm?"

"First, take a look at this." Juli activated a display monitor that showed the hypersphere surrounding the Floating Landmass.

"What is it?" Shion asked, standing near Juli along with Jr.

"It's a hypersphere that appeared during a battle with Ormus. The Elsa was swallowed by it." Jr. said.

"Right. And now, this hypersphere is beginning to shrink." Juli explained. "It'll likely continue to shrink to Planck-scale size and then disappear from this dimension."

"What will happen to the Elsa?!"

"At this rate…it will be taken into phase space along with the hypersphere. If that happens, it'll be impossible for us to rescue them. If we don't break through this hypersphere, we can't rescue the Elsa."

"But weapons on the Durandal or E.S.s don't even make a dent." Jr. stated.

"The surface of that hypersphere is connected to imaginary space. Ordinary attacks are useless against it. Its only weak spot is a part called the Klein Point. If we can pierce that point with a high-output weapon and reverse the space, then perhaps."

"You've gotta be kidding me! How the hell can we do that?!" Jr. looked puzzled.

"Oh! KOS-MOS!" Shion suddenly said, an idea coming to her head. "KOS-MOS's phase transfer unit!"

"Exactly." Juli said. "KOS-MOS's Tertiary Weapons System may be able to break through that hypersphere."

"But KOS-MOS has been slated for scrap. How are we supposed to do this?" Allen asked as Shion walked down the ramp. "Besides, there's no way we'll get permission to use the Tertiary Weapons System."

"Hmm."

"Yes, that's why I've gathered you all here." Juli said. "KOS-MOS is currently awaiting disposal inside the Zohar Project facility."

"You're planning to steal KOS-MOS?" Ziggy asked.

"There's no other way to rescue the Elsa. I'll guide you during the infiltration, but it'll still be dangerous. It'll be up to you to decide."

There was a brief pause as Shion thought over her choice. Upon coming to her decision she nodded.

"All right. I'll do it. I can't just abandon the Elsa's crew, or KOS-MOS."

"Shion!" Jin exclaimed, sounding surprised.

"Yeah, I guess if we do them a big favor now, we'll be able to make use of it later." Jr. said.

"Then it's settled. We don't know how long the hypersphere's shrinking will last. We need to begin immediately." Juli explained. "We move tonight."

"Right. Let's get ready and—" Shion sounded exhausted as turned around, only to suddenly hold her head as if she had a headache.

"Chief? Are you all right?" Asked a concerned Allen.

"Yes, I'm fine—"

"_She doesn't sound fine._" I thought.

"Shion?" Jin asked worried.

"Nnnh…" Shion suddenly collapsed to the ground in front of us.

"Chief!"

"Shion!"

------------------------------------------------------

Some time after Shion had been taken to the sickroom I had decided to go visit Shion to see how she was. As I made my way to the door down the hallway I saw Jin walk outside and seemed surprised when he spotted me.

"Ayame? What brings you down here?" He asked.

"I was worried about Shion and wanted to see if she was feeling better." I answered.

"If you're wondering how she is, I would have to say that she's back to her usual self. But if you want to make sure, you're more than welcome to see her. She would probably respond to you better than me."

"Thank you."

I walked into the sickroom to find Shion sitting on the bed she was lying on.

"Jin, I already told you. You could have just handed me the herbal remedy." Shion said.

"Huh?" I asked. "What are you talking about, Shion?"

Shion looked over to me and her eyes widened when she realized who I was.

"Ayame! I didn't mean to mistake you for my idiot brother!"

"It's okay." I walked over to the bed Shion was on and sat down next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling fine. Thank you for asking."

"That's good to know. There was something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?"

"After you collapsed…did you see anything?" I asked.

"Yes, I did." She said quietly.

"Were they events that haven't happened yet? Like a vision of the future or something?"

"A vision of the future? No, nothing like that." She seemed confused. "Why?"

I sighed, preparing myself the explanation I was about to give.

"Do you remember when I would have flashbacks of my past?" I asked.

"Yes. I remember you having one a year ago, when we went to the beach on the Kukai Foundation. You had a dazed look in your eyes when it happened."

"Lately I've been seeing more than just my past." I looked at the ground. "I've been seeing visions of what are possibly things yet to come."

"You mean like visions of the future? But how?" Shion asked.

"I'm not sure how I'm doing it. They come to me without any warning that I'm left wondering when the next one will come. I feel like it could happen at any minute and I still wouldn't be prepared for it." I explained. "And right before it even starts I get a headache, but that feels like a literal last minute warning to me. The last time I had one was a few days ago, when Jr. and Lilith were with me in the Park Area while I took care of my Japanese irises. I had gotten a headache, but it was more painful than normal and I ended up collapsing. I woke up some time later in my room with Jr. and Lilith worried sick."

"Is that why you thought I saw a vision of the future?" I looked up at Shion and saw that she was curious. I nodded. "What were the visions you've seen so far?"

"One of the visions I've seen were Floating Landmass, which I wasn't sure was a vision of the future until we went there in our E.S.s. Another was the inside of a cavern and I saw KOS-MOS fighting another KOS-MOS. There was another one that came to me after I calmed Jr. down while waiting, which was all of our E.S.s flying through the hypersphere and making it to the Elsa in time. This helped to reassure Jr. since he was worried about the crew of the Elsa. And in the last one I heard you talking to Allen about the android that looked like KOS-MOS, who Allen said was called T-elos. I even saw it standing on a platform behind a window." I didn't want to mention the vision I saw of Jr. I didn't want to think of it.

"You saw T-elos? That was when I went with Allen to the demonstration."

"Yes. I have a bad feeling about her, Shion. Like there's more to T-elos than what's been shown to us."

"You said that you took care of Japanese irises. When did you get them?" Shion asked.

"I got them on my eighteenth birthday as a gift from Jr." I smiled. "Back then, there were about six bulb in the packet, but I only planted three of them in the Park Area, while keeping the other three for another time if anything were to happen to the ones I'm taking care of. Ever since then, I've watered them everyday and make sure that they get enough water. They have grown very pretty."

Shion giggled and I looked at her, feeling confused.

"Huh? Did I say something funny?" I asked.

"No. I just couldn't help but be reminded of fifteen years ago, when I was a little girl." Shion answered. "I used to grow flowers from seeds I would get from Feb and like you, water them everyday and gave them fertilizer. I did this, thinking that it would make people happy when they saw them, along with Mom and Dad. They were pretty as well."

"I'm sorry that I made you remember your past like this." I apologized, feeling bad.

"It's okay. But thank you for being concerned about me."

"I think it was very kind and thoughtful of you to grow flowers. I wish I couldn't seen what they looked like. For some reason when I close my eyes, I think I can imagine what it must've looked like. From what I can envision it must've been very beautiful, with flowers of many different colors together in clusters."

"That's what it actually looked like. You must have a good imagination." Shion said. "For some reason, I find it easy to talk to you about my past. You take it upon yourself to listen to others and try to understand their problems. It makes me feel like I'm a mother telling a child a bedtime story."

"A mother telling a child a bedtime story… When you put it that way it makes sense." I said. "I understand. I may not remember it, but there may have been a time my Mom told me a bedtime story when I was little. I believe memories like those are precious, especially those of family. I don't think I had any siblings, but I knew I had Mom and Dad."

"I forgot that you barely remember your parents. But you're right about memories of a family being precious."

"It's not so hard to understand." I felt my smile disappear as I became serious. "Shion, I want you to do something for me, like a favor."

"A favor? What is it?" Shion asked.

"Could you try to get along with Jin?"

"Why do you want me to do that?"

"Because he's your brother. I know you lost your parents a long time ago, but he's the last family member you have left. You two don't exactly see eye-to-eye but it's not too late to try. I lost my family 4,000 years ago and I don't remember them very well. But you still have your brother. Isn't it better to have a family you remember and a brother who is still alive, than a family you don't remember that has been dead?" I stood up from the bed and looked down at Shion, giving her a soft smile. "Please think about what I've said. It would really mean a lot to me if you could even consider it. I'm glad I was able to talk to you."

I left the sickroom after saying that. I hope Shion understood what I mean.

------------------------------------------------------

Later I got off the Durandal and walked into the Federation Orbital Space Port with Jr., chaos, and Lilith. Some time ago I had asked Mary if she could have someone take care of my Japanese irises while I was away, which she said that she would do that and thanked her. As we made it to the end we saw Shion standing by herself.

"Did Juli head back to the facility?" Jr. asked, calling out to Shion.

"Yes, she said she's going to get things ready for our infiltration." Shion answered as we walked over to her.

"Okay. We should get started, too. There's not much time. Stock up on anything you'll need." He then looked up at me. "That includes you, Ayame."

I quietly laughed nervously at Jr.'s last statement.

"Let's meet in the lobby of Shion's hotel." chaos suggested. "We won't look suspicious meeting in town, and it's close to the facility."

"Is that okay with you, Shion?"

"Sure, that's fine." Shion replied.

"Okay. Let's get moving!"

I left with Jr., chaos, and Lilith, but not before waving bye to Shion. As we walked to the end of the Space Port we entered an doorway that led into what looked like a room with three long couches to sit on surrounding a small round table. The others sat down on the couch but I didn't know why as remained standing, looking around the room.

"Wait a minute. Why are you three sitting down?" I asked.

Suddenly the room started to shake. I ended up loosing my balance and fell back on the couch, landing on something warm. I turned my head to see what I fell on and felt my face heat up when I realized it was Jr. and quickly got off him to sit in the empty space between him and Lilith.

"I-I so sorry!" I apologized, my face seeming to get warmer.

"It's okay…" He said.

"Look what you did, Red!" Lilith said as she suddenly held me protectively. "You've gone and scarred her for life!"

"_Scarred me for life?_" I thought, feeling very confused.

"I-I didn't mean to!"

"Kidding! I was just kidding!" Lilith started to laugh.

Lilith soon let go of me and that was when I noticed the window and the fact that the area outside was moving upward. It was then that I realized what this room actually was.

"_An elevator…_"

_(Jr.'s POV)_

After that incident happened with the elevator starting Ayame now sat between me and Lilith staring at her hands in her lap. She probably felt embarrassed from what happened (not that I blame her) and was quiet because of that.

"_I blame it on this elevator!_" I thought.

I looked out the window in front of us as we descended to the planet below the Space Port. I suddenly got an idea in my head and started directing my thoughts over to Lilith.

"_Hey, Lilith?_" I asked Lilith telepathically.

"_What is it, O short one?_" Lilith asked.

"_Don't call me that!_" I growled.

"_Whatever! Although, I believe that wasn't your reason for speaking to me telepathically. It's obviously something important, especially when it concerns a certain someone._"

"_Keep going, Lilith, and I'll make sure that you lie dying in a pool of your blood! Orders or not!_"

"_Cool it, Red! I was just joking! You really can't take a joke these days. So what was it that you needed?_"

Finally, we were getting somewhere!

"_I was wondering if I could take Ayame around Fifth Jerusalem without you with us. Not just to prepare for tonight, but to show her the city as well._"

It was quiet on her side and I started to expect the worst.

"_Normally I wouldn't allow you to do something like this, but since this is her first, and probably her last time on Fifth Jerusalem, I'll let you two be alone without my presences. BUT, if you do anything, and I mean ANYTHING, to her I'll make sure you regret it for the rest of your life!_" I suddenly became fearful. "_So do you agree?_"

"_Uh…sure… Thanks…_"

_(Ayame's POV)_

The elevator soon reached the bottom and the door opened to reveal what looked like a subway (not the sandwich). We walked out of the room-like elevator and made our way to the exit of the building. We all stood outside the Space Port (at the bottom of it) and I couldn't help but look at the city that was Fifth Jerusalem. I noticed that Lilith and chaos started walking away from us.

"Where are you going, Lilith?" I asked.

"Somewhere." She replied. I stared at her. "I'm trusting Red to take care of you in my temporary absence until tonight."

And with that both she and chaos walked into the city, leaving Jr. and I alone with each other.

"So where do you--"

"I'm so sorry!" I apologized.

It was quiet between us and I felt a little awkward from the silence.

"Huh?" Was Jr.'s intelligent answer.

"I'm sorry about what happened in the elevator earlier when I…" I could feel my face heating up. "…fell on you…" I said the last part quietly.

Surprisingly, Jr. was able to hear what I said.

"Hey, it's okay! It was only an accident! You didn't realize it was an elevator until it started movie. Although I should've warned you ahead of time."

"But still, I'm sorry that it happened."

"I told you it was only an accident!" Jr. grabbed my hand. "Repeat after me: 'It was only an accident.'"

"Why?" I felt confused.

"I didn't say for you to repeat 'Why?' Repeat: 'It was only an accident.'"

"It was only an accident…" I said softly.

"What was that? I couldn't hear what you said."

"It was only an accident." This time I said it a little louder.

"There we go! That's what I wanted to hear! And that's what it was: an accident." Jr. smiled. "C'mon! Let's get prepared for tonight. And while we're at it, we can look around the city! How does that sound?"

"That sounds nice." I answered.

After that we started looking for a shop to get supplies for tonight. We soon found one and bought some things (Jr. offered to buy my share of ammo, but I told him that I had my own G to pay for them, saying that I didn't want him to spend money on me) before leaving to look around the city. We spent some time looking around the city and I was amazed at how lively the people were as they went on with their lives.

(Play BT's Theme from .Hack//SIGN)

We soon came upon a the park that had benches in an open area that overlook a portion of the city below. The area had a lot of trees and plants around, making this place different from the city. I sat down on one of the benches with Jr. sitting beside me.

"This place is beautiful." I said.

"I agree. But which place to you like better, the Park Area on the Durandal or here?"

"I like the Park Area on the Durandal. It was the first one I saw a year ago and nothing can compare to it in my eyes." I smiled softly. "The thing is, I like being in the Park Area. Whenever I'm there around the plants and trees, I feel like I'm a step closer to the place I was from before I was placed inside the capsule."

"Is that why you're always there now?"

"Yes. I find peace there. You should be able to understand this by now."

"And I do!" I felt him hold my hand. "I'm able to understand by the way you talk, what you say, your actions, and how you treat others. Don't ever change, Ayame. I love you the way you are."

I looked down at Jr. before wrapping my arms around him and holding him close to me as I felt him do the same.

"I'll try, Jr. I promise I'll try, just for you."

------------------------------------

Later during the night, Jr. and I made it to the Möbius Hotel where Shion and the others were waiting while getting prepared for the infiltration.

"Everyone ready?" Jr. asked as we walked over to the others.

"Listen, we're going up against an important facility of the Galaxy Federation military." Allen explained. "They'll attack intruders without stopping to ask questions, so stay on your toes."

No one said anything as we looked at Allen.

"_In other words, for the military it's shoot first then ask questions later…or never at all._" I thought, feeling somewhat uneasy with this idea, but we had little choice if we wanted to get KOS-MOS.

"You're the one we're most worried about." Jr. stated to Allen.

Allen faced Jr., a surprised look on his face.

"Hey! I know that facility better than anyone else here."

"I know. I'm counting on you." Shion said.

"Chief…"

Jin walked over to where we were, his expression serious.

"Sorry to interrupt your tender moment, but we don't have much time." Jin stated. "Let's get going."

* * *

ATE: What did you all think of this. I know it may seem a bit dull, but I wanted to get this done for those who've been patient enough to wait this long. I would like to thank everyone who has been patient with me so far. Next time, I'll try to update sooner, but I'm not sure when that'll be. Please remember to Review! :)


	8. Chapter 7

ATE: Sorry it took so long for me to update. I just posted this at 10:10 p.m. at night! It took me awhile to figure out how I wanted this to play out at the time, and originally this chap was going to be longer but since I've kept everyone waiting for about a WEEK I felt like I needed to get something on soon. The chap is a little short but the next one will be longer, I promise! Next week on Thursday (the 29th) I'll be leaving for a Jr./Sr. college tour and won't be back until Nov. 2 at 9:00 p.m. at night. So I don't know when I'll be able to update next time. Let me tell you right now that the music that's in this chap can be found on youtube (I don't own, I recommend you go there for the music) and I'll tell you what the song is. So enjoy reading!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or the music in this chap. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 7

After Allen had explained to us about the CAT Testing Grounds we decided to split into two groups, since we wouldn't draw as much attention to ourselves than all of us going together in a big group. It turned out that one group would consist of Shion, Allen, chaos, Jr. and myself, while the other group was Jin, Ziggy, MOMO and Lilith.

Let me tell you right now that Lilith was glaring at Jr. when she learned that she wouldn't be around me. I had a feeling that while glaring she was talking to him telepathically, and I could guess that she was threatening him on something that I couldn't help wondering what they were.

"_I wonder why Lilith's been threatening Jr. lately?_" I thought.

When everyone agreed with the grouping the group I was in left the hotel first, walking out into the dark and slightly cool night air. After a while of walking we came upon a white transport vehicle that looked like a van and got inside. The inside of the vehicle had dark colored seating and three rows of places to sit at (including the front that had only two seats, the one on the left with a wheel in case someone chose to drive the vehicle in manual). Shion, Allen and chaos sat in the second (middle) row, leaving Jr. and I to sit together.

"I call window seat!" Jr. stated.

I couldn't help but shake my head while giggling at what he said, but I let him claim his seat. After sitting down myself the transport vehicle started, driving on auto and I couldn't help but I remembered the first time I rode in a transport vehicle. It was after arriving on Second Miltia (and my first time there) when I was with Jr., MOMO, Ziggy and chaos. During that time chaos, MOMO and myself were waiting for Jr. and Ziggy to arrive. I can still remember how surprised I was when the vehicle started moving without anyone driving it, but since then I've gotten used to it.

I suddenly remembered what Allen had said about the security and that they would shoot at us upon sight, and I couldn't help but feel scared.

"_What if someone gets hurt during the infiltration?_" I thought, feeling suddenly uneasy. "_What if…_"

I felt something warm being placed on top of my hands that were clutched to my knees, causing my grip to relax. I looked up to see that it was Jr. who had placed his right hand (which was now) on my left, a concerned look on his face as his eyes reflected his emotions.

"Are you okay, Ayame?" He asked quietly.

'Y-yes…" I answered quietly, looking back down at my hands and at the one that was covered by his hand. "I-I'm fine…"

It was quiet after what I said and I had a feeling that Jr. was still looking at me. I felt his hand squeeze mine gently.

"You're scared, aren't you?"

I couldn't help but reluctantly nod my head in answer. I tried not to show it, but he obviously knew how I really felt at the moment. I felt his other hand being placed on the right side of my face and turned it in order to make me look at him, preventing me from looking away.

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. We've been through worst before." He then gave me a soft smile. "If it makes you feel better, I'll be there." He whispered the last part to me.

I couldn't help but feel my face heat up a bit and the small smile that formed on my lips after seeing his. His fingers brushed the side of my face as Jr. lowered his hand downward, grabbing my right hand in his warm hold once he met mine.

"_Sometimes, I wish I had your bravery…Jr.…_" I thought. "_Is it possible that I may have been as brave as you in the past?_"

I felt the transport vehicle come to a stop and soon got out. I saw that we were a good distance away from the CAT Testing Grounds and were parked near a stop station.

"Shion! Over here! Come on, hurry!"

I turned my head in the direction the voice came from and saw Miyuki waving at us. We started to come over to her.

"Hey, hey, not so loud." Allen cried (quietly). "Do you want them to find us?" He then calmed down. "So, is everything ready?"

"Yep, all set! I tweaked the security, so you've got a free pass inside."

"I hope you didn't make any mistakes this time." Shion said sternly, her facial expression matching her tone of voice.

"Oh, come on, you can trust me!" Miyuki cried. "You're the one who told me not to do anything dangerous and then asked me to help you."

"There isn't anyone else I could ask."

"What about Doctus? You could have asked Scientia!"

"They're busy with something else." Shion stated. "Besides, this is our own problem. I can't ask them to help with this."

"Ah-hah, I knew it! You're only using me because there's no one else!"

"Tch-ha ha ha ha." Allen started laughing

"Hey! Stop laughing!" Miyuki complained, a mad look on her face.

"So, how do we get in?" Jr. asked.

"The main gate is sealed, isn't it?" chaos asked.

"Don't worry. We can get in by using the mono-carrier below. We'll also use the transporter within this facility." Allen explained. "As for the route, first we'll head from deck number two to the exercise area. Past that is a transporter on deck number five. That'll take us to the research wing where KOS-MOS is."

"Right! Just leave the rest to me! I've got something up my sleeve just in case we get caught. And I'll even help fight against any guards we may happen to run into." Miyuki giggled slightly after saying this.

"Your job is to make sure we don't get caught. Please don't screw this up, Miyuki." Shion stated seriously.

"Nch-ha ha ha ha ha…" chaos snickered…

"Heh heh heh…" …along with Jr.

I couldn't help but giggled slightly myself, but stopped myself quickly before Miyuki saw that I was laughing. Sadly, Jr. and chaos were caught.

"Hey! I said stop laughing!" Miyuki demanded angrily.

Both Jr. and chaos stopped laughing at this.

"We still have to wait for the others." I stated.

"You're right." Shion agreed. "We can't start the infiltration without them."

(Play Margulis and Pellegri from Xenosaga 3 ost) (AN: can be found on youtube by typing in 'Xenosaga 3 ost Margulis and Pellegri' and clicking on the first option)

So we decided to wait for the others to rendezvous with us. But until then we all chose to talk amongst ourselves for the time being. Jr. was talking to chaos while Shion spoke with Allen, leaving me to quietly watch them. Don't get me wrong, I didn't exactly feel left out at the moment and I enjoyed watching them, seeing how their faces expressed their emotions as they talked.

But lately I started feeling as if I wasn't supposed to be in this picture… As if I wasn't supposed to be here at all…not on Fifth Jerusalem….not on the Durandal…not with the others…

"…_or with Jr.…_" I thought sadly, suddenly feeling forlorn.

"Hey, why such the long face?"

(Stop music)

I jumped in surprise and turned to find Miyuki standing near me.

"You scared me." I said, holding a hand over my heart where I felt it hammering underneath my palm.

"Sorry about that. But you still didn't answer my question."

"Um…I'm not sad or anything, if that's what you're thinking. I'm just worried about tonight and everything, that's all."

"Feeling nervous?" Miyuki asked, a smirk on her face. It was as if she knew something I didn't.

"A-A little…" I hung my head as I brought both of my hands over my heart.

"Don't be!"

I looked up at Miyuki's face, feeling confused.

"Huh?"

"You don't need to be nervous." She then leaned closer to me. "Besides, you have your man here." She whispered the last part to me while smirking.

"W-wha…?" I felt my face heat up from what she said.

"Anyways, I don't really know your name and we haven't exactly introduced ourselves formally." She then held out her hand to me. "I'm Miyuki Itsumi, an employee of Vector. Although I believe you could already tell from my uniform."

"I'm Ayame." I greeted, shaking Miyuki's hand.

"Ayame…?" She said as if trying to ask what my last name was.

"I don't have a last name. At least I'm not able to remember it."

"How come?"

"I have amnesia, so I don't remember my past. All I know is that I'm from the year 2008 A.D. and have been asleep for 4000 years. I been awake for a year now but I still get some flashbacks occasionally." I explained.

"So you don't even remember your real name?" Miyuki asked, sounding curious.

"I don't. But I have a feeling I'll remember eventually."

"That's good to hear. I don't think I'd be able to go around not knowing who I was. It would probably drive me crazy!" She then smiled. "You don't mind us being friends, do you?"

I smiled.

"Of course I don't. I think you're very friendly, and I like having friends so it isn't a problem to me." I answered.

"That's great! If I ever get a break from work and you have some free time, we could do something together. Like a girl's outing and such!"

"Sure…that sounds fun..." I nervously laughed.

Just then I heard the sound of something approaching and turned to see that the transport vehicle with the others arrived and pulled up next to the one we rode in earlier. MOMO, Ziggy, Jin and Lilith got out of the vehicle and came over to where we were.

"It looks like everyone's here. Are we ready?" Shion asked.

We all nodded our heads. We then piled into the mono-carrier and took it to the CAT Testing Ground. After sitting for some time inside the carrier the door soon opened and we all walked outside to find ourselves standing on a metal platform and to our left was a path leading deeper into the slightly dark area barely lit up by small lights on the ceiling. As we walked on the path our footsteps made sounds when it made contact with the metal, sounding like we were walking on top of a metal cage.

"Freeze!"

We turned around to find five guards wearing the same uniform pointing their guns at us, ready to fire at any moment. I saw everyone talk out their weapons and I followed their example I took out the Shiruba. I shot at one of the guard and ended up hitting him in the arm, while Shion, Ziggy and chaos took care of the rest.

Once they were down and unconscious I went over to one of the guards and knelt down in front of them as an idea came into my head. I saw that the others were about to leave but stopped as Jr. turned around to look at me.

"Ayame, what are you doing?" He asked, sounding confused.

"I'm trying to figure out how to take this guy's uniform off." I answered.

Everyone was quiet as they stared at me, giving me strange looks.

"Why are you trying to take his uniform off?" Jin asked, curiously.

"Um…I suddenly got this idea that we could use their uniforms as disguises, so we wouldn't have to sneak around and worry about getting attack…"

Everyone was quiet again from what I said, and they still gave me those strange looks. It felt like hours passed with the silence heavy in the air around us and I suddenly felt uneasy.

"What?" I asked innocently, confused by why they were giving me those looks.

"You do realize that some of us are either too feminine shaped or too _short_ to wear those uniforms." Lilith stated.

"Hey! That's not funny!" Jr. complained.

"It wasn't meant to be funny, Red." The older (in appearance) woman said.

"It was a good idea at first, except for that minor flaw." Allen said. "It's the thought that counts, right?"

"Thanks, Allen." I said genuinely.

* * *

ATE: Thank you for reading chap 7 of this story. The last part with the guard's uniforms and diguises was an idea I got last night and thought it would be funny to use (it was meant for humor). I could actually see it happening too! Anyways, Please Remember to Review! :)


	9. Chapter 8

ATE: Woohoo, guys! I'm finally back after so long with a new chap for this story. I'm really sorry for this taking so long to come out, but I finally got around to writing this one and had been working on it since yesterday. I even had to play Xenosaga III while I wrote each bit of this chap to get a better idea of what goes on (since it's been so long since I've played this part). I'm really glad I got this part done since writing this was sort of a hassle (no offense to anyone). I would like to thank The Duelist of Dawn, TalesOfLegendia Fan, the kid (who is anonymous), Kuro Neko to Kuro Bara, and XxDragonEyexX for their reviews on this chap so far, along with everyone who has read this story and were able to patient while waiting for this chap.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

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Chapter 8

After having fought our way through the area and moving a platform in order to cross over a gap, we eventually made it to the other side of the gap where we found a guard…well, guarding the door we needed to get through. Once he was out of the way we passed through the door, which lead to a stairway that was dimly lit and the only light were the bright glowing white outlines near the floor. At the top of the stairs was a door that we entered and we found ourselves in what I assumed was the transporter dock.

"We've come out on the platform. First, we need to get on the second transporter." Shion told us.

As we proceeded through the area I couldn't help feeling somewhat uneasy due to the sound of our footsteps echoing in the air. How was it that the guards or whatever was guarding the place couldn't hear us? The sound of my footsteps (along with everyone else's) sounded loud in my ears. I followed everyone as we came upon a glowing sign that read 'No. 2', along with a transporter that must be the one that'll take us to the No. 2 area. To make a long story short, we all got in the transporter and rode it until we arrived in the next area, where we had to fight more guards with the new addition of machines as well. After taking care of the enemies we went into a room that looked like it would be used as a lounging room. I noticed something on the floor and I turned to look, only to have my eyes widen when I saw a drawing of a girl done in glowing neon blue ink.

"_That's Nephilim!_" I thought.

_Suddenly I saw an vision of a little boy wearing a white outfit with his dark hair pulled back in a ponytail kneeling on the floor as he drew on it with the marker in his hand. I wasn't able to see his face since his back was to me._

The vision disappeared before everyone started exiting the room and I followed them. After leaving the room we continued moving through the area until we arrived at another, which I recognized from the vision I saw of T-elos fighting all those Gnosis during the demonstration. We reached the area that had not just one transporter but three, one of them being the one we needed to take. Like the first transporter we took, all three of the transporters had glowing signs that read 'No. 4', 'No. 5', and 'No. 6'. Apparently the No. 5 transporter was the one we needed to take since everyone was piling inside it, myself included, before it took off.

Upon arrival, we arrived near an elevator that was locked (the red holographic bars being evidence of that fact).

"Good work, guys." Miyuki told us cheerfully. "All that's left is to take this elevator to the research wing. We can relax now."

"Well, that was pretty easy." Jr. commented.

"Good job, Miyuki!" I said.

This caused Miyuki to turn and smile at me.

"Thanks, Ayame." She turned back to the others. "I told you I had everything all set! I'm pretty good, huh?"

"Yes, yes, we see how useful you are. Now, let's go." Shion said impatiently.

"Here we go!" Miyuki went over to the elevator, pulling out her connection gear as she started typing on it. There was a short pause before she spoke again. "Huh? That's weird."

"What's wrong? There's not much time. Hurry up."

The uniformed woman came back over to us, appearing to be slightly nervous. "Um, well…the elevator isn't responding."

"Miyuki. You screwed up again, didn't you?" Shion scolded.

"What? No, wait, it's okay!" She replied nervously. "I thought this might happen, so I prepared another route! So, it's not a problem!"

"Are you sure about this?"

"Oh, Shion! Everything's fine! C'mon, let's go!"

"Ahww!" Shion looked frustrated.

"_I guess our only option is to continue forward._" I thought.

"So, um…Ayame…" Miyuki started as she came up to me. "Does this mean I can't keep the praise you gave me…?"

"I'm not going to take it back, if that's what you mean. So you made a mistake. We all make mistakes. I still think you did a good job getting us this far." I told her.

"That's good! For a second there I thought I lost your approval of me."

"You don't need to worry about something like anytime soon, Miyuki." Lilith said.

"Why's that?" Miyuki asked.

"Because once Ayame approves of someone she meets, that approval stays. It'll stick to you for the rest of you life."

We continued on our way to the next area, entering a vast room as we walked on the narrow path. We eventually found a control console, and we wondered who should activate it.

"I'll do it!" Jr. said.

"No! Don't do it, Jr.!" I cried.

"**Warning: Purging restraint power unit.**"

Too late… Jr. already activated the console. The voice from the console and the restraint power unit lowering was proof enough.

"See? Nothing bad happened."

"_You say that now, but I have a feeling something bad _will_ happen…_" I thought.

After that was done we had to solve a puzzle that had to do with rotating these four platforms in order to get to the other side where the other console was. Jr. volunteered to activate the console again, causing me to feel uneasy.

"I can't watch…!" I said nervously, covering my eyes with my hands.

"**Warning: Purging restraint power unit.**" I heard the voice say, followed by the sound of the second restraint power unit lowering like the first one did.

"Sheesh, Ayame. I really don't see why you're so worried about me activating a console." Jr. told me as I pulled my hands away from my eyes, letting them fall at my side.

We continued on our way, crossing over a bridge that I realized the restraint power units created (they had covered the gaps that had been there before). Eventually we came into a room that had a big window and it took all my will power not to gasp when I saw the huge Gnosis behind it. When we walked in front of the window the Gnosis striking the window, causing the glass to crack in various places before busting through the ceiling of the area it was being contained in. It escaped!

"This block was a Gnosis breeding area." Shion stated. "I think we just made a mistake."

"This is bad…" I said quietly.

"You got that right, Ayame." Lilith told me. "After all, this wouldn't have happen if it wasn't for a certain someone activating consoles and purging the restraint power units."

At this Jr. turned to face Lilith with a annoyed expression on his face.

"Hey! If I didn't activate those consoles we wouldn't have been able to get this far!" Jr. retorted.

"He does have a point." I said.

We had no choice but to continue to the next area. Upon taking an elevator up we found ourselves in the A.G.W.S. hanger and we ended up having to fight the AG-01, followed by the VX-7000 that was guarding the door we needed to go through. After awhile, we eventually defeated the VX-7000.

"I never thought we'd end up fighting them." MOMO said. "It feels rather strange."

"It's only an A.G.W.S." Jr. stated. "The pilots pick which side they're on. Don't get emotional about it."

"I guess it all depends on who's piloting them. But it's not something you can easily forget." Shion stated.

"You didn't do anything wrong. I'm sorry." The pink haired Realian apologized.

When the conversation ended, we proceeded to until we came to the area that had the elevator controls and activated it.

"See, look! The elevator is functional! Just look at it!" Miyuki said excitedly.

"What do you mean, look at it?" Shion asked. "If the elevator worked earlier, we could have avoided unnecessary battles."

"That's true, but…see? Now we can go to the research ward!"

"Are you sure?" The older woman looked at her.

"Of course! Come on. Let's hurry up. I'm sure KOS-MOS is waiting, too!"

We eventually made our way to the Vector research wing, where we got on the elevator. Everything was fine…until the elevator descended past the Vector research wing.

"What's going on, Miyuki?" Shion asked. "The elevator went past our floor."

"What? Uh, hmm… I wonder why." Miyuki said.

"You messed up again, didn't you?"

"No, I couldn't have. I checked it! Really, I did!"

"This isn't her fault." Jin said. He looked as if he sensed suspicion about our situation. "We are being lead somewhere by someone or something."

"What do you mean?" Shion asked.

"Where does this elevator go?" Ziggy asked.

"Oh, it's, uh…" Allen started. "If we keep going down this way, we should end up at a large underground hangar."

"So, something's down there, then, huh." Jr. assumed.

"Oh…" Shion sighed.

The elevator continued to descend. I started thinking…wondering what we would encounter next. All I knew was that we would be able to get KOS-MOS and saw the Elsa crew, but nothing else. Despite dreading when another vision would come to me I wished I could see one right now, even be able to see one whenever I wanted instead of at a random time. I wanted to feel assured that everything was going to be alright, even after we've rescued our friends.

"Hey, look at that!" I heard Jr. say.

We all looked in the direction Jr. indicated and I gasped, my eyes widening when I saw the familiar sight of the giant machine in front of us!

"That's—Omega!" Jin said.

"No…" I said quietly, shaking my head. "It can't be…"

"That thing's enormous! What the hell is my idiot father planning to do with that thing?"

The elevator stopped and we all got off, going over to stand in front of Omega. As everyone glanced at the machine I noticed Shion holding her head as if she had a headache.

"Shion!"

Shion was about to collapse, but Ziggy managed to catch her before that could even happen.

"Chief?" Allen cried.

"I-I'm fine." Shion said as she tried to recover. "I just felt—a little dizzy, that's all."

"Maybe you haven't completely recovered yet."

"I'm fine. It's nothing, really." Shion started to stand on her own as she recovered herself.

"Chief…" Allen sounded worried.

"It's okay. I'm just a little light-headed." She started to walk slowly. Shion looked to her left. "Oh."

"Huh?"

We all turned to look in the direction Shion was looking in to see a little boy with dark hair and wearing a white outfit standing near the door. I recognized him as the boy in the vision I saw earlier despite not having been able to see his face before.

"That boy—" Shion exclaimed. "That's Abel!"

"_Abel…?_" I thought.

"You're Abel, right?"

"Sad being, this way." The boy, Able, said before entering through the door.

"Hey, wait!"

"Who's that kid? You know him?" Jr. asked.

"No, but Juli said he's an invaluable member of the Zohar Project." Shion replied.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you earlier, but he's the pilot of Omega. He lives in this facility. You see him around CR a lot." Allen stated.

"That boy is Omega's pilot? But why is he here by himself?"

"Maybe it's a trap?" Jr. guessed.

"Who would do that? And more importantly, why? And who does he mean by 'sad being'?"

Miyuki came closer to our group.

"Maybe he's trying to lead us to KOS-MOS." Allen said.

"So, you wanna follow him?" Jr. asked.

It was quiet as Shion seemed to be thinking of what to do.

"Um, I don't understand any of what you just said. What's going on?" Miyuki asked.

"Yeah, there's no point in staying here." Shion said, ignoring Miyuki.

We started moving on to the next area.

"Hey, wait, Shion!"

Upon hearing Miyuki I stopped so I could wait for her to catch up. When she did the dark haired girl gave me a smile.

"Thanks, Ayame." She told me.

"No problem." I said.

I followed the others through the door and in the next room I saw Abel going through the door to the left of the doorway we stood at. We followed the boy into a room filled with scrap metal but Abel was nowhere to be found. I looked around the area with the others, feeling as if I've been here before.

"_But that's impossible._" I thought. "_This is the first time I've been here._"

"Ahh!" I heard Allen yell, followed by a thumping sound. I turned to look at Allen and saw that he had fallen to the ground.

"What are you doing, Allen?" Shion asked as she came over to him "Are you all right?"

"Ow, that hurt!" He said painfully, holding his head as he got up. "Hey, what is with the ground here?" He lifted his head. "Oh! Chief! L-look!"

I looked in the direction Allen pointed to, only to find an inactive KOS-MOS near a bunch of scrapped parts.

"KOS-MOS!" Shion cried as she desperately rushed towards the android. I followed the others over to hear and I could see that the dark haired woman kneeling beside her. "KOS-MOS! How could they do this to you?"

I saw Jr. walk closer to where Shion and KOS-MOS were in order to get a better look.

"Man, I can't believe they'd trash a top security unit in a place like this." Jr. said as he placed his right hand on his hip. Shion sighing depressingly. "Ah, eh, uh, sorry." He placed his left hand behind his head, turning to look away as he realized his mistake.

I took this chance to walk over to him (careful not to trip on the scraps as I did so) until I stood next to him and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Be careful on what you say next time, okay?" I whispered to him, sounding like I was giving him advice instead of scorning him.

Jr. glanced up at me, briefly nodded in understanding before turning to look back to where Shion and KOS-MOS as Allen joined them.

"Chief, it's okay." Allen said as he knelt down near Shion. "It seems like there aren't any damages. We can reboot her right away."

Both Shion and Allen took out their connection gears, the holographic screens appearing with words I wasn't able to make out from where I stood, but I assumed that it must've been the rebooting menu.

"I don't understand. What's this task?" Shion asked, sounding puzzled. "Miyuki, can you tell what this is?"

Miyuki already had her connection gear out and was looking at the holographic screen.

"Uhhhh—Beats me. But I think it looks like some kind of feedback from something. I won't be able to tell without an analysis…and we don't have that kind of equipment here for that."

"All right." Shion stood up. "Then it'll just have to wait till later. Let's reboot her and get out of here. Miyuki, I'll run a stalking program against that task, so make a record of it. Ask Doctus to analyze it later."

"I'm on it!" Miyuki said cheerfully, putting her connection gear away before she mock saluted.

After awhile Allen was able to set the reboot sequence on KOS-MOS.

"Chief, I'm gonna start her up." Allen said, backing away from the android.

"Please do." Shion said.

Allen activated the reboot sequence on KOS-MOS. I noticed that the android's hand twitched and before I knew it she stood up. I heard Shion sigh with relief.

"Good morning, KOS-MOS." Shion greeted. "How are you?"

"And good morning to you, Shion." KOS-MOS replied in her monotone voice, lifting her head up to reveal her face, along with her red eyes. "My drive coefficient is down by .3, but everything else is running normal. There are no problems."

Shion approached KOS-MOS slowly before embracing her.

"Good. I'm sorry, KOS-MOS." Shion sounded emotionally happy.

"Is there something wrong, Shion?"

"No. It's nothing. I'm just happy. That's all."

Afterwards Jr. went over to Shion.

"All right then. We shouldn't stay here long. Let's hurry up and get out." Jr. said.

"Yes. I agree." Allen said.

"Yeah. KOS-MOS, can you enter battle mode?" Shion asked.

"Yes, any time." The android replied.

Shion turned to Miyuki. "Miyuki, move to backup and support KOS-MOS during combat."

"Why? Why do I have to be backup? I barely got to fight!" Miyuki whined.

"Your job isn't to fight, so stop whining."

"Yes ma'am."

After that we started making our way down the path that had been blocked by scraps (which we dealt with using our weapons), where at the end was a dumping elevator.

"I think we can use this." chaos said.

"One sec." Jr. said before walking over to check the elevator controls. "Yeah, it's connected to the exercise area. Looks good."

For some reason Shion started holding her head, causing me to feel worried.

"Shion, are you all right?" Jin asked. "You don't look well."

"What? It's nothing." Shion told us. "I'm…fine—"

Suddenly we saw Shion collapse to the floor unconscious and we all rushed to her side.

"Shion!"

"Aheh?" Allen sounded startled.

As I stood there I couldn't help feeling worried and utterly confused. Maybe I was even scared, but I wasn't completely sure myself. What was happening to Shion? I knew these weren't normal headaches that she was getting, and I knew that she wasn't seeing visions either; Shion told me herself after I told her about me seeing visions of things yet to come. But then why was she collapsing like this lately?

Suddenly my head started to ache and it took all my will power not to hold my head since I didn't want to worry the others. I was having a vision!

_I saw a mass of red and purple waves mixing together all over the place, even surrounding me. I saw Shion standing some ways away from me and I tried calling out to her, but no sound came out of my mouth. My eyes widened when I realized what these waves were!_

"_U-DO…!"_

"Ayame, calm down!"

I gasped, my eyes wide when I realized that I was back in reality. Every stared at me in concern including Jr., who I just realized was standing in front of me with his hands on my shoulders.

"Are you okay?" Jr. asked me.

"Yeah…" I said quietly. "It was just another vision."

"What was it?"

"…U-DO…" I whispered so only he could hear.

I watched as Jr.'s blue eyes widened and he seemed…almost alarmed.

"What about U-DO…?" He whispered, looking fearful.

"I…I don't know…"

I knew U-DO was bad news. I've seen what it could do first hand when we had Dived into MOMO's subconscious, but the look on Jr.'s face told me that what I've seen may have only been the tip of the ice burg of what it was capable of.

"Jr.? What's wrong?" MOMO asked.

Jr. took his hands off my should, the fearful expression on his face disappearing before turning to face MOMO, who had a concerned look on her face.

"It's nothing." He told her.

"What happened to Ayame?"

"She's…She's…" He couldn't seemed to get the words out.

I placed my hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up at me.

"I'll tell her." I said, before looking at everyone else. "I'll tell everyone as well."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive." I nodded my head. I saw that everyone's attention was on me "You all know how I have flashbacks of my past. Lately flashbacks aren't the only thing I've been seeing. I've been seeing visions…visions of things that might happen and will happen eventually."

"You mean like the future?" Jin asked.

"Yes. I don't know why, but all I know is that the ones I've had so far have come true. Like us finding the Floating Landmass. I saw it way before we even got the mission."

"Is there a vision that you've seen that will happen soon?" Ziggy asked.

"There is. I saw a vision of use being able to get through the hypersphere with KOS-MOS' help and were able to get to the Elsa."

"If what you say is true then our efforts to save the Elsa are guaranteed." chaos stated.

"Hopefully…" I barely whispered. I wanted to change the subject so I turned to Miyuki. "Miyuki?"

"Yes?" Miyuki responded, seeming surprised that I called her.

"Do you have any idea what wrong with Shion. Even how this started happening with her?"

"Well, I'm not sure, but I think it might have to do with when we infiltrated the Vector S-Line Division."

"I-Infiltrated?" Allen yelled in disbelief and shocked. "You two infiltrated the Vector S-Line Division?"

Miyuki's eyes widened when she realized what she said and it was as if she said something she wasn't supposed to reveal.

"Oops! I shouldn't have said that! Shion will kill me for spilling the beans!"

"Well, there's no use trying to keep it secret if you've already said this much. Why don't you tell us what happened?" chaos suggested.

"I guess I really don't have a choice, do I?" Miyuki looked like she was thinking before she spoke again. "It was after we broke into the S-Line Division central server that we were attacked by this huge Gnosis. After awhile we had no choice but to escape and Shion told me to disconnect us."

"You two disconnected?" Allen asked, his eyes wide and he looked worried. "This is bad…"

"I don't understand." I said, confused. "What's so bad about Shion and Miyuki disconnecting?"

"Disconnecting refers to the act of physically breaking one's connection to the Encephalon within the U.M.N. when trouble arises during the session." KOS-MOS explained. "Although it depends on the connection system, in most cases the subject will suffer significant physical damage; in the worst case, his or her brain may even become impaired. For this reason, disconnects are usually prohibited."

"If this were the case, then is it possible that this is why Shion's collapsing?"

"It's possible." Miyuki replied. "But I'm perfectly fine!"

"Nnnn…"

We all looked over to Shion before rushing over to her side. She was starting to wake up! I watched as her green eyes opened before she sat up.

"Chief!" Allen cried.

"Shion! Thank goodness." MOMO said.

When Shion didn't say anything I started feeling worried.

"Chief?"

"What? Why am I… What happened?" Shion asked, sounding as if she just gained her senses. She looked glanced at all of us briefly, but I was able to catch the confusion in her eyes.

"Are you really okay?" Jr. asked

"Yeah sorry. I'm-I'm okay now."

I went over to Shion's side before helping her to stand up. Once she was on her feet she gave me a small smile.

"Thank you, Ayame." She said.

"You're welcome." I told her.

We took the dumping elevator up to the exercise area. As we made our way through I suddenly heard something opening and turned around to see A.G.W.S.s being released and coming after us!

"Everybody start running!" I yelled.

We all started running away from the A.G.W.S.s that were chasing us, but I noticed Lilith stopped and turned around to fight them.

"Lilith! What are you doing?"

"You guys keep running! I'll hold 'em off for ya!" Lilith yelled back, sounding amused. "It's time to whip out some pain on their asses!"

At this point there was no way for me to stop her so we continued running, with Jr. ahead of all of us. As we ran into a huge area Jr. was thrown back as the ground underneath him exploded, but luckily he was able to do an aerial recover before landing on the ground in front of us.

"Whoa!" Was all the red haired boy said before the Gnosis from earlier appeared from the hole in the floor.

I got out the Shiruba as everyone else got their weapons out. I kept my weapon in gun form before using Analyze on the Gnosis and I learned that it was called the Aludra Calf.

"This is gonna take awhile." I muttered.

I shoot at the Aludra Calf, but right after I did so I was struck by its fist and sent flying through the air, landing painfully on the ground. That really hurt…! I started getting up when I noticed that it started charging at me and my eyes widened, but then I saw Lilith slashed at it with her daggers before gracefully landing in front of me.

"So, what did I miss?" Lilith asked.

"Nothing really. We just got started." I replied.

"Good!"

After that I chose to go around to heal the others with Medica M when they needed it while they continued to fight. We eventually defeated Aludra Calf after awhile.

"Geez, what the hell is the military thinking keeping things like that around?" Jr. asked.

"Yes, it's definitely not an admirable hobby." Jin agreed.

"Anyway, it looks like everyone's okay." Shion said.

"Well we were able to recover KOS-MOS." Allen added.

"Then there's no reason for us to stay here." chaos concluded. "Let's return to the Durandal and hurry to the Elsa's rescue."

"Yes." Shion agreed…

"Yeah." …Along with Jr.

With that we all left the CAT Facility and eventually made our way to the Durandal. It was after we boarded that the ship took off from Fifth Jerusalem.

Roth Mantel stood on top of the roof of Fifth Jerusalem, watching as the Durandal flew away. From behind him, the Blue Testament appeared our of nowhere before standing next to him.

"So, what are you gonna do with them?" The Blue Testament asked. "Are we just going to let them go?"

"That's a foolish question." Roth replied before turning to the Blue Testament. "As we've observed, the compass swings sharply when Shion comes into contact with KOS-MOS. The Thirteenth Key. Even without our intervention, they will reach that location."

"I guess everything follows the destined flow, huh. Don't tell me you knew this was going to happen from the beginning. Ooh…scary, scary."

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ATE: Now that concludes chap 8 of Xenosaga III The Final. Personally, I had to poke fun at the fact that whenever Jr. presses and fools around with things (be it the controls or a button), something bad happens. It was also interesting to write Miyuki and I felt the need to use her for humor as well. Since it's summer (and I'm officially out of school) you all can expect more chaps to come eventually. Please Remember To Review! :)


	10. Chapter 9

ATE: Wow! Would you look at this! I just add the next chap the day after I posted the previous one! I know this chap is shorter than the last one, but I'm on a roll again! I wanna thank Alex Yamato, TalesOfLegendia Fan, Blaid, and The Duelist of Dawn for their reviews on the previous chap. Also, I recommend checking out Alex Yamato's story (which is a cross-over of Gundam and Xenosaga) called 'Mobile Suit Gundam Xenosaga Season 1'. It's a really good story which I would recommend any fan of Xenosaga or Gundam read. Enjoy chap 9.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

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Chapter 9

_(Jr.'s POV)_

We were all outside the Durandal in our E.S.s as we flew towards Gedalya Space and the Floating Landmass that still had the hypersphere around it. There were Gnosis around the area and we started attacking them. The Reuben sliced and destroyed one of the Gnosis while a second one was thrown into the hypersphere, while I was firing the Asher's machine gun.

"The differential boundary strength of the surface is 910e." chaos stated.

"Damn, you kidding? Touch that and say good-bye, huh?" I said.

Suddenly I spotted another Gnosis appearing in the area.

"Gnosis?" Shion exclaimed. "Why are they here?"

The Reuben sliced one of the other Gnosis.

"Shion, there's no time." Jin said. "Head straight for the coordinates!"

"I got it! Are you ready, KOS-MOS?"

KOS-MOS was standing outside on the Dinah as she activated the Tertiary Weapons System.

"Initialization complete. Safety released." The android said.

I watched as the Dinah flew closer to the hypersphere in order to get in range.

"We're in range. Do it anytime, KOS-MOS!"

"Acknowledged."

KOS-MOS fired the Tertiary Weapon System's bright blue lasers, destroying the Gnosis in the way as it continued to travel towards the hypersphere. My eyes widened when I saw that the hypersphere absorbed the lasers!

"What the hell? What's going on?" I asked, completely shocked at what happened.

"Oh no! Even KOS-MOS can't disturb it!" MOMO said.

"Chief, maybe this is beyond us!" Allen said.

"Just believe in KOS-MOS!" Shion said. "It's all right. I know that she'll be able to do it!"

"Setting weapon deployment to maximum output!" KOS-MOS suddenly said.

"_Wait! So that wasn't the system's full power?_" I thought.

Suddenly, the Tertiary Weapon System unleashed glowing blue mechanical wings that reminded me of Ayame's wings when she was in Angel Mode, but the ones KOS-MOS had where straight and jagged, while Ayame's were slightly curved and had a softness to how they were form. The system fired its lasers at the hypersphere again and this time it broke through, creating a hole for us to get through!

"All right!" Shion yelled.

"Oh yeah! We're going in!" I yelled excitedly.

All five of us flew into the hypersphere and I took a quick glance behind us in time to see the hypersphere closing behind us.

"_Ayame was right!_" I suddenly realized, remembering what she told me. "_The vision she had came true!_"

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Back on the Bridge of the Durandal Mary and Shelley watched as the five E.S.s made their way through the hypersphere.

"E.S. craft have penetrated the hypersphere! The surface fissure has closed." One of the 100-Series Realians said.

"Gnosis swarm in the surrounding space has disappeared!" A second one said.

"All E.S. craft lost from radar. All communications are cut off." A third one said as well.

Mary smiled as she held her hands over her heart.

"All right! They've made it through!" The blonde woman said excitedly.

"It's too early to celebrate." Shelley told her sister. "The Gnosis probably vanished in order to pursue them. The real challenge starts now."

"I'm sure they'll manage." Mary looked back at the hypersphere. "We just have to believe in them."

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Inside the cavern with a stone cross Roth Mantel stood in front of the casket, staring down at it's smooth stone surface as the Blue Testament appeared behind him. He could hear his footsteps as he approached him.

"You sure are infatuated with her." The Blue Testament said. "Is it regret from the time when you still wore a mantle of flesh? Or is it because of ambition you still hold?"

"…" Roth didn't respond.

"Heh, heh, heh, so, now you're going to use the daughter in place of the imperfect mother? The Maiden who invites the spreading Gnosis. You're one Heartless bastard. And it's not like you don't know what this is going to cause."

"It is necessary for the new world." Roth said, looking at the Blue Testament. "Is your cloak just a decoration?"

"Hmph, I don't like the idea of that thing as the womb, but whatever. I'll give you a hand. We just need to destroy KOS-MOS, right?"

"It is beyond your power. The only one who can destroy KOS-MOS is T-elos."

"Oh, really? So I guess my job is to attend to the princess's little whims." There was a brief pause as the blue cloaked man glanced at the stone casket. "Works for me. I'll lead the entourage."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_(Jr.'s POV)_

We were all inside the inner part of the hypersphere and I couldn't help but marvel at the sight of the Floating Landmass.

"What does the scan of the interior show?" Ziggy asked.

"Temperature: 18 degrees Celsius. Pressure: 0.94. Wind speed at landing point is 20 m/s. Atmosphere is 77% nitrogen, 20% oxygen with traces of argon and carbon dioxide." MOMO explained. "The air is breathable."

"What's the Elsa's position? Can we get in touch with the crew?" I asked.

"There's a response on the underside of the object." chaos said.

"I'm opening the channel." MOMO declared.

A communication monitor suddenly appeared in front of me and I could see Tony and Hammer inside the Bridge of the Elsa.

"Woohoo! We're saved! We're gonna get out of here!" They both exclaimed excitedly.

"Little Master! Thank God you're here!" Hammer said.

"Out of the way!" Matthews shouted at Tony and Hammer as his communication monitor appeared behind theirs. "Can't believe you're getting' all excited just because they showed up."

"You guys sound like you're doing just fine." I stated, somewhat surprised.

"Of course. You can't run a salvage business if you let every little setback get you down."

"_Well, that explains a lot…_" I thought.

"Looks like there's a couple of exceptions to that rule." I smirked.

"Hey! Stop goofin' around and get to your posts!"

Tony and Hammer's communication monitor disappeared, leaving only Captain Matthews up. I laughed.

"We're on our way now. Get the hangar ready for us."

"Roger. We'll be waiting to welcome you."

With that the communication monitor disappeared and we started making our way towards the Elsa.

_(Ayame's POV)_

After making our way to the Bridge on the Elsa the crew explained to us what happened, leaving us confused by what they said.

"You can't escape?" Jr. exclaimed. "Why?"

"We haven't got a clue." Matthews answered. "Hey, Hammer!"

"The logical drive isn't responding at all. There should be nothing wrong with it since it's fully repaired and functioning normally." Hammer explained. "Anyway, I haven't got a clue."

"If the logical drive isn't working, there's nothing we can do." Jr. concluded.

"Yes, as things are now, the environment bugs will run out of resources first, and then we'll eventually run out of water and oxygen." The Professor said.

"That doesn't sound good." I said quietly.

"Professor…" Jr. said.

"Something in this strange land must be affecting it. We'll have to go out and have a look." The old man suggested.

"You're certain that something in this land is causing it?" Ziggy asked.

"It's impossible to be sure. But I think it's worth investigating."

"Gotcha." Jr. turned to Matthews. "Captain, get things ready so you can launch at any time. Don't worry, we'll have you outta here in no time."

We all started making our way back to the Hanger so we could board our E.S.s. As I followed the others I felt someone gentle grab my upper arm before pulling me to the side. I looked to see who did it and was surprised to find that it was Jr.

"Ayame, I need to talk to you." He told me.

"What is it?" I asked, a little confused.

"Are you sure you'll be okay coming with us?" I could see concern in his blue eyes as he asked me this. "With these visions you've been having lately, I'm kinda worried something might happen while we're out there."

"I'll be fine, Jr. You don't have to worry about me."

"But what if something happens to you and you end up getting hurt?" Fear started to mix in with the concern in his eyes. "What if you collapse like you did back in the Park Area of the Durandal?"

"Jr., Jr.…" I whispered gently, taking his hands in mine as I tried to reassure him. "I know you're worried about me getting hurt, and I'm truly gratefully for the fact that you care about me, but I'll be okay. Nothing bad will happen to me, I promise."

"You…" He lowered his gaze. "You can't guarantee something like that!"

"I just did, Jr. True I might get hurt, but what I'm promising you is that I won't get anything serious like a broken arm or a bleeding injury." I smiled. "Besides, I have both you and Lilith there to help me, so everything will be fine."

Jr. looked back up at me and gave me a small smile.

"You really shouldn't spend so much time with Lilith, you know?" He joked, causing me to giggle.

"I don't exactly have a choice in the matter. She _is _my bodyguard, after all." I let go of one of his hands, leaving me to hold his other one. "Come on. The others are probably wondering where we are."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I sat at the navigational controls of the Elias as I made the E.S. follow the Dinah, Asher, Zebulun, and Reuben to the next area of the Floating Landmass, occasionally fighting Gnosis on the way. Some time later we spotted what looked like a translucent crystal with what appeared to be a purple glow coming from inside its center.

"What's that?" Shion asked.

"This is a Geocrystal." KOS-MOS answered.

"It's pretty…" I said.

"Meh! What's so great about it? It's just a rock!" Lilith stated.

"It seems we can't destroy it even with the power of the E.S.s." Ziggy said.

With that we continued moving on. We soon found another Geocrystal and the Dinah struck it, making it to fall onto the one we encountered earlier and shattering it to pieces.

"Hmm. So, if we hit the crystal with another, we can destroy it." Shion said.

We moved into the next area where we found another Geocrystal.

"There's a Geocrystal over there, too." MOMO exclaimed.

"It looks difficult to knock this ore down." chaos noted.

"Yeah. And if we did, it'd block our path." Jr. said.

"We'll have to hit with the other ore and destroy it." Jin said.

We continued going further through the mountains where we soon found a Geocrystal on the highest part of the ledge. We pushed it off and watched as it crashed into the Geocrystal that had been blocking our path earlier.

"Target successfully destroyed. We can now proceed." KOS-MOS said.

"Good job, KOS-MOS! Let's go back down." Shion said. We all returned to the previous floor where the Geocrystal used to be and the path was cleared. "Okay, here we go!"

I started following the other E.S.s up the path, but I spotted something on the ground and picked it up. It looked to be a part of the Geocrystal we destroyed, but its form was rough and I knew that it couldn't be used in its current form if the crystal itself was usable. I quickly put it away before following everyone into a cave.

* * *

ATE: Well, that's chap 9 for you. Hopefully everyone is looking forward to chap 10 (that'll have two certain people in it that we all know about will be in it). I know in this chap that I've kinda mentioned what Ayame's wings look like when she's in Angel Mode, but I have a video to show you all what they look like (since I've said what they've looked like in the second story), but if you don't really know what they look like, here's the video you can check out (without the spaces):

_**http : / www . youtube . com / watch ? V = l Bpb LA O4 _ JM**_

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed this chap. Please Remember to Review! :)

**UPDATE: **I've added a link to a video I made on youtube that has me showing drawings of Ayame/Andrea and Lilith. Check it out if you wanna see what they look like. Here's the link (take the spaces out):

**_http : / www . youtube . com / watch ?v = 52 CSh 5 yrp 1M_**


	11. Chapter 10

ATE: [Comes out with a Hylian shield held in front of her, peeks over the top before bringing her head up] Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I know I've taken so long in updating this story, but good news is that I finally finished this chap. As I was typing this up I noticed that I had the most trouble writing fight scenes so that's probably what took me so long. Now I'm just happy to get this chap done and posted for you guys to read. I'd like to thank Alex Yamato, The Duelist of Dawn, minaseiko1, ., xXRubedo666Xx, Xenosaga-Fangirl,  
Goofy Goober Rock, Light Wings, and Marco Polo for their reviews. According to Marco Polo, Lilith's a badass and Ayame isn't one of those annoying Mary Sues. At least I know I'm doing something right. Alright, so now you can go read!

Link: [Clears throat and stares at ATE before holding his hand out]

ATE: ...You want your shield back, right?

Link: [Nods head]

ATE [Sighs and hands Hylian shield back to Link] Fine, you can have it back.

Link: [Walks away]

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or anything related or any references in this chap. I don't own a Hylian shield, Link, or anything from the Legend of Zelda franchise. I only own my OC Ayame while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 10

I couldn't help but marvel at the sight on the cave we were in. It was so big and the only source of light came from the hole in the ceiling.

"Whoa! Where are we?" Jr. asked.

"It looks like a cave." MOMO replied. "A very wide one."

As I continued looking around with my eyes I noticed something on the cave's wall that looked like a tablet. Jr. must've noticed it as well because of what he said next.

"Hum? Is that Hebrew? No, maybe it's ancient Aramaic?" He said. "'Behold the great…' Aah! I don't know. I can't read it."

"'And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.'"

My eyes widened when I recognized what MOMO read.

"That was…Matthew 28:2..." I said quietly.

"Wow! You can read it?" Jr. asked, surprised.

"No, I recognize it." MOMO answered. "They're exactly the same words that I've seen before. It was recorded and stored in Daddy's Y-Data."

"Mizrahi's?"

Suddenly I saw a laser firing in our direction.

"Look out!" Shion yelled.

I quickly maneuvered the Elias in order to dodge the attack. That was a close call!

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" An unknown E.S. came out from the other opening in the gave with the Blue Testament standing on top of it. "Don't you know it's rude to come into someone's home uninvited!"

"Testament?" Jr. exclaimed.

"You! You were in the Song of Nephilim." Shion stated.

"Oh, so you remember me?" The Blue Testament said, sounding slightly delighted by what Shion said. Well, isn't that nice. I find that rather interesting." I noticed that he placed his hand on his mask, as if he was about to take it off. "You see, I remember you, too. I remember that you let me die!"

The Blue Testament took off his mask, revealing his face that I noticed had blonde hair and what looked like a huge scar on the right side of his face, or was it scarred skin tissue? I heard Shion gasp up seeing his face.

"But, Lieutenant Virgil! How?"

"Now don't get all sentimental on me. It's not like I've been hiding out here in this dump all this time just so the two of us can talk about old memories." The Blue Testament, or Virgil as I had learned, spread his arms out. "Hardly! No, I've got business to attend to with your craft!"

The E.S. he stood on started to transform into its robotic weaponry form and fired a laser cannon at us, only for our E.S.s to evade the attack.

"Wait, Lieutenant! You're right! It's true th-that…that was—"

"Like I've told you before, all your self-righteous crap makes me sick!"

"Jr.! Look at the letters on the wall!" MOMO cried.

It was then that I noticed that the tablet and the letters on it started to glow before the other E.S.s started to do the same. Why were the other E.S.s glowing and not the Elias?

"Damn! It's already started." Virgil said.

"Wait! What's going on?" Jr. asked.

Virgil laughed. "You were riding them without even knowing about that? Oh, whoops. And you're still 'compelled' to ride them now, huh?" He laughed again. "Now that really is funny!"

"What are you talking about?" Shion asked.

Suddenly the E.S.s stopped glowing.

"It's quite simple! That is the kind of place this is, to those Vessels of Anima that you're using."

"To the Vessels of Anima?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Jr. asked.

"Come on. You're not very bright are you? Why don't you just try using your heads a little for once?" His voice rose at the last word he said.

It was then that we all engaged in a fight with Virgil's E.S. (which I learned was called the Naphtali). The Asher and Dinah attacked Naphtali up close while Zebulun attacked with lasers. Lilith used the Elias' vulcan cannon and fired at our enemy. When Naphtali recovered Virgil started laughing.

"Hah hah hah, I love it. I can clearly feel your hatred." He said.

Naphtali awakened its Anima and I watched as a huge Buster Launcher appeared in the E.S.'s hand. My eyes widened when it aimed at Zebulun before an orange beam shot out of it.

"MOMO!" I cried out.

"I'm retreating." The pink-haired realian said.

I heard Lilith growl.

"That's it! He's goin' down!" Lilith yelled. "Ayame, hurry up and change into Angel Mode!"

"As much as I want to I can't."

"What? Why not?"

"You know how exhausted I get after using it. And I have this feeling that I'll need it for later."

"Fine!" She sighed. "That just means we'll have to do this the old fashion way: earning victory by beating him to a bloody pulp!"

I made the Elias fly over to Naphtali and Lilith took care of the rest by attacking. But the E.S. was only blocking my partner's attacks.

"This is boring. Let's be a little more passionate!" The Blue Testament actually sounded bored!

"I'll show you passionate!" Lilith yelled. "Yah!"

Lilith used the Elias' beam sword to slash at the E.S. I made sure to dodge Naphtali's attacks as best as I could.

"Locked on."

Suddenly I spotted Dinah flying up to Naphtali and attacked it.

"No mercy!"

Asher attacked.

"Attacking!"

Reuben attacked and I realized what was happening!

"_An ambush!_" I thought.

"Heh, you think you've won? You're attacks have no effects on me!" There was a flash of light and Virgil reappeared on top of Naphtali as it faded, his hands on his hips. "Heh! Well this is interesting. I guess there's just too many of you."

"Lieutenant, you died. You're supposed to be dead." Shion said. "So how—"

"How did I get here? Is that your question? Am I alive or am I dead?" Virgil guessed. "It doesn't really matter. That isn't even important. Then again, it's not something that I would expect you to be able to understand."

"Oh, please. Enough babbling nonsense, partner."

Suddenly light flashed and a white E.S. appeared out of nowhere. That was when I saw the White Testament with his arms crossed over his chest. What was he doing here?

"What's this? Is the new kid coming to crash the party?" The Blue Testament asked.

"The time has come! Or, what? Were you planning on staying here forever?"

My eyes widened and I gasped when I heard the voice of the White Testament!

"Th-that voice!" Jr. exclaimed. "A-Albedo?"

"_It can't be! He's dead!_" I thought, feeling shock and dread at this new revelation. How was he even alive?

The Blue Testament teleported to the white E.S and stood next to his white counterpart.

"Hey, wait a minute! Albedo! It's you isn't it? Did you forget about me?"

Nothing was said. Instead the white E.S. lifted an arm as its hand started glowing and the Vessel of Anima was pulled out of Naphtali.

"Vessel of Anima! Why? You mean you pilot E.S.s as well?" Shion asked.

The Vessel of Anima disappeared and suddenly Naphtali broke down, crumbling to the ground in a heap after going limp before the white E.S. started flying away.

"No, wait Albedo!" Jr. tried to go after the white E.S. but the other E.S.s started glowing again as the letters on the tablets did the same. "What? What the hell? Damn! The E.S. isn't responding!"

"Neither is mine." Ziggy said. "The energy gain is dropping. It's going to shut down!"

"Output still dropping!" MOMO stated. "It's no good. Unable to sustain current levels!"

"Ha, ha, ha! That's what I tried to tell you!" The Blue Testament's voice echoed throughout the room. "Like I said before, that's the kind of place this is. Oh well. Good luck figuring it out!"

All four of the E.S.s shut down and became non-functional while the Elias was still functioning like normal. Why wasn't the Elias effected? I noticed Shion climbing out of Dinah and I took that as queue to shut down the Elias and climbed out with Lilith as the others did the same. We all met up on top of a platform and used our connection gears (except for me since I didn't have one) to dismiss our E.S.s before facing the big entrance behind us.

"Dammit, we'll have to walk the rest of the way." Jr. said.

"What did Lieutenant Virgil mean by 'that's what kind of place this is'?" Shion asked.

"I expect the answer to that question lies ahead." Jin answered.

We all started walking towards the entrance when Jr. stopped.

"Wait a minute. Why didn't the Elias shut down?" The red-haired boy asked.

"You remember the Nutty Professor and his Erde Kaiser, right?" Lilith asked.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It just so happens that the Elias is using the same power generator that Erde Kaiser uses. After all, he was the one that created it."

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, causing Lilith and Jr. to look at me. "Convenience in the form of a giant robot…!"

"Okay, Ayame. Let's go before you start day dreaming."

Lilith started dragging me as we followed the others into what appear to be ancient ruins when we were inside. It was so strange walking through those ruins since the place seemed familiar to me. Was I having some sort of déjà vu? So strange… I noticed light up ahead as we climbed a set of stairs and Shion and Jr. were the first to go out. When I came out I was surprised to find that we were in what appeared to be a graveyard with some vegetation with some fog settling in the area.

"Where are we? Did we come out on the surface?" Jr. asked. Everyone else came out. "Man, how the hell can something like this be floating out in space?"

"Huh!" Shion gasped. "This…is…"

"What's up, Shion?"

I watched as Shion walked further into the graveyard. I followed after her a bit but stayed a distanced away. This place looked familiar…

"I've seen this place before. It's the place in my dream."

Dream! Now I know why this place seemed familiar! I had seen it in a dream I had a year ago after having woken up from the capsule I had been in.

"Nephilim?" I looked at Shion to see her staring off in a direction but I wasn't sure what she was looking at. Then suddenly she was holding her head. "Oh, my head—"

"Shion?" chaos asked as he started approaching the dark-haired woman. "Are you all right? What's wrong?"

"I'm fine. It's nothing."

We started moving on, following Shion in the direction I remembered her staring into. We encountered a huge gravestone that the older woman destroy, revealing a set of stairs leading deeper down into…wherever it led to. Upon reaching the bottom my eyes widened when I realized that this was the cave in my vision. The same one where…

"_Oh no…_" I thought.

Not only was it the cave from my vision but it was also the same one from KOS-MOS's subconscious domain when we did an Encephalon Dive in order to the Kukai Foundation's name. And there were what looked to be twelve destroyed floor coffins.

"This is an impressive sight." Jin said.

"It looks like a tomb. Are those coffins?" Jr. asked. Jin followed the red-haired boy as he went over to check on one of the coffins. "It's empty. Did some grave robbers get to it or something?"

"I doubt there would be grave robbers in a place like this, but that is strange."

"Jr.! Look!" MOMO cried out.

"What it is, MOMO?"

Jr. and Jin came over to the floor coffin MOMO was standing next to.

"This coffin has the name 'Asher' on it."

"Huh?" Jr. ran over to another floor coffin in order to examine it. "This one says 'Dinah'? You've got to be kidding me. They're all E.S. names."

"Coincidence?" I asked.

"Meh! This thing reeks of anything but 'coincidence.'" Lilith stated. "Something about this is suspicious, and I don't mean the good kind."

_(Third POV)_

Shion approached the stone cross with a stone coffin sitting in front of it as KOS-MOS followed her.

"_This is the place from KOS-MOS's subconscious domain._" Shion thought. "_But why is it here?_"

Shion and KOS-MOS came closer to the cross before the former turned to face the latter.

"KOS-MOS, do you know this location?"

"No." The android answered. "My memory contains no data regarding our current location."

"Yeah, you've never been here since you were developed." Shion glanced at the stone cross in thought. "_What does this all mean?_"

_(Ayame's POV)_

Once we had checked everything out we were preparing to leave when lasers were suddenly fired at us but thanks to KOS-MOS blocking the attack with her barrier none of us were harmed. I opened my eyes and lifted my head up, only to have them widen when I saw T-elos standing up from her crouched position and I noticed that she had her special vision wear active.

"T-elos!" Shion exclaimed. "Why is she here?"

"I'm here for the Thirteenth Key." The white-haired KOS-MOS look-alike said. "The time of awakening has arrived." The vision wear she had was deactivated to reveal her blue eyes, a startling contrast to KOS-MOS's red eyes.

"Wait a minute. What is she?" Ziggy asked.

"She's KOS-MOS." MOMO stated.

"_No… The vision… This is just like my vision…_" I thought.

"So that's the T-Weapon?" Jr. asked. "Someone has a twisted sense of humor, making her look exactly like KOS-MOS."

"This presence…" chaos said quietly. "But wait, she can't be!"

"A simple doll that doesn't even understand its reason for existence." T-elos extended her left arm as she activated her power. "To ensure that I continue to exist as myself… KOS-MOS… I'm going to destroy you."

We had no choice but to fight T-elos. Jin, Ziggy, Shion, Lilith, and chaos attacked the android up close while MOMO, KOS-MOS, Jr., and myself attacked from a distance. So far we were having difficulty.

"There's no need to rush. I'll dispose of each of you in turn." T-elos said.

That didn't sound good. And the fact that she was presenting a challenge for us wasn't good either. KOS-MOS shot at her with her gatling gun but T-elos deflected every bullet.

"KOS-MOS, surrender and become part of me!"

T-elos activated Overtaker and I knew we were in for some bad news. Really really bad news. She managed to knock KOS-MOS to the ground and was about to stab her.

"This is where you die!"

"Not if you die first!" Lilith yelled.

Lilith charged at T-elos with her daggers ready to strike, but then at the last second the android whipped her head in the direction of the female U.R.T.V. and quickly brought a gun out.

"Don't interfere!"

With that T-elos shot at Lilith, but despite having barely blocked the attack the bullet grazed her arm.

"Lilith!" I cried out.

I transformed into Angel Mode and changed the Shiruba into swords before flying at T-elos. Even though I was attacking her she kept blocking all of them with ease and I hardly dealt any damaged. Suddenly I was caught off guard when she slammed me into the ground and pressing her booted foot painfully down on my abdomen. I was shocked when I reverted back to normal but it was short-lived when T-elos pressed down harder, causing me to whimper quietly in pain.

"Pathetic." She aimed her gun at my heart and I felt dread fill me as I knew what was going to come next. "Die!"

In that moment a bullet hit T-elos but at the same time her gun went off as well. I cried out in pain as the bullet penetrated my flesh and embedded itself in my upper left arm instead of in my chest. The pain! It hurt so much! It was a pain that felt more hotter than a burning fire! I couldn't think of anything but the intense pain I felt that I wasn't aware of what was happening. I wasn't aware of the weight on my chest being lifted, or something carrying me away.

"…me. Ayame. Can you hear me?"

I tried to block the pain as best as I could in order to focus on the voice talking to me. I managed to crack my eyes open and was surprised at who I saw.

"chaos…?" I asked, my voice having a hint of the pain I felt in it.

"Don't worry. I'm going to help you. I just need you to focus on staying awake while I try to get the bullet out."

"No… Don't… The others need you're help…"

"You need my help more than the others at the moment. They should be able to handle things long enough." With a surprisingly light touch he gently started wiping the blood off the gunshot wound on my left arm so he could see the hole better before taking out a pocket knife. "How scared were you about being so close to getting killed?"

I was confused at first about why chaos was asking me a question but then I realized he was trying to distract me from the pain and help me to stay awake.

"Extremely terrified…" I answered. "I don't think Albedo could've been able to scare me that much…" I bit my lip in order to stop myself from screaming in pain while chaos tried to dig into my arm to get the bullet out.

"It's okay. Good news is that the bullet isn't in as deep as I thought it was. So you know about the verse on the stone tablet?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Verse?"

"The one that you stated was Matthew 28:2. Do you remember what happened before that led up to that conclusion?"

"I think so..."

"Can you tell me?"

I tried to remember what happened before the verse, getting an mental image of a bearded man bleeding as he hung on a wooden cross with the nails in his hands and feet being the only thing keeping him in place. There was a crowd of people and guards as they watched the man slowly die before their eyes and I imagine a few people weeping at the sight, especially an older woman.

"There was a man…a teacher with twelve disciples. He was…Jesus Christ. One of the twelve…Judas betrayed him for money and he was put on trial. He was tried…beaten…whipped…and then he had to carry a wooden cross through the streets as people sneered at him. He was nailed to the same cross he carried along with two other criminals… One of them was saved because he believed in Jesus but the other was condemned. He died and was buried in a tomb cut out of solid rock which had never been used." It was strange how I was able to remember all of this and my pauses were when I was trying to remember what happened.

"Do you remember who Jesus Christ was?"

"He was the Son of God…the Messiah… He died on the cross as a sacrifice…as the ultimate payment for the sins those born and yet to be born… The lamb of God…who takes away…the sins of the world."

"That's right. That's who he was." I felt more pain as chaos started pushing the bullet out with the pocket knife. "The bullet's almost out, Ayame. You're doing a good job."

"Thanks. You kind of remind me of Jesus-"

That was when chaos managed to get the bullet out and I felt pain erupt from the wound. He then placed a hand over the hole before using a healing Ether on it and I felt the pain reduce to a dull ache.

"I remind you of Jesus?" He asked.

"Yeah. I don't know why, but you just do." I told him.

chaos and I rejoined the others battle and I was relieved when I saw that Lilith was okay. After awhile T-elos was knocked to the ground which led to KOS-MOS activating her chain gun and firing at the white-haired android's, causing the area where her body was lying to be covered in flames.

"Is it over?" Shion asked.

"Hah! Some top-secret weapon that thing was." Jr. said as he twirled one of his handguns

"Shion." KOS-MOS said. "The enemy unit's output is 4.75 times higher than mine. Therefore we are at a clear disadvantage."

"What? Wait, what do you mean?"

"I am going to delay the enemy unit." KOS-MOS came over to Shion, raising her left arm in front of the woman. "Please retreat immediately."

That was when I saw T-elos standing among the flame and appeared to be unharmed from our attacks earlier.

"What the! Even after all those attacks, she's still completely unharmed?" Shion looked somewhat terrified.

KOS-MOS rushed at T-elos and the two androids engaged in single hand-to-hand combat, but most the blue-haired android's attacks were ineffective against her. T-elos kicked KOS-MOS and she landed on the floor. As she was making her next move, the white-haired android tried to break off KOS-MOS's right arm but the latter managed to free herself. The fight continued and T-elos knocked KOS-MOS down badly to the floor.

"It's useless." Suddenly a man wearing a blue uniform, blonde hair and glasses appeared. "We've already completely analyzed her combat patterns."

"Why are you here? What do you mean, analyzed? Do you mean…that task?" Shion asked.

"It's probably against both of you wills, but it's KOS-MOS's fate to be destroyed by T-elos in this place." He said while approaching, stopping to stand next to T-elos.

"How can you even say that to me? Why are you and T-elos even here to begin with?"

"The answer is simple." Suddenly the man changed, revealing himself to be the Red Testament. "My job is to observe you."

T-elos jumped, preparing to make her next move.

"T-Testament!"

KOS-MOS jumped up and was also prepared to make her next move.

"You have no time to be surprised. Your princess is losing."

KOS-MOS and T-elos continued fighting. After a while T-elos activated the blade on her left arm and attempted to slash KOS-MOS, but the blade slashed KOS-MOS's right face. Then T-elos attempted to thrust her arm blade into KOS-MOS, but KOS-MOS managed to break out of it and kicked her far back to the wall.

"Shion, I will only last 140 seconds with my current capacity. Please hurry." KOS-MOS said.

"No way! I refuse to leave you behind, KOS-MOS!" Shion cried. The fight kept going. T-elos grabbed KOS-MOS's leg and swung her around before throwing her into a wall. She charged as us in an attempt to attack us but KOS-MOS appeared in time to hold her back. "KOS-MOS!"

As KOS-MOS continued to hold T-elos's fist, her left arm slowly broke down. But then she activated her chain gun and fired at T-elos, causing her to jump back in order to dodge the attack.

"Damn you!" Jr. growled, firing his guns at T-elos as well.

After KOS-MOS and Jr. fired their weapons a large amount of stones fell to the floor. When the dust cleared we saw T-elos standing on top of the pile of rock, still active but with only a cut on the left side of her cheek.

"KOS-MOS, what is the actual reason for your existence?" T-elos asked. "You are nothing more than an empty vessel. How pathetic. You'll never be able to accomplish anything. Return to dust, so that I may truly…awaken!"

T-elos activated her chest opened up before a red orb of energy started to form, getting bigger as it built up.

"What is that?" MOMO asked.

"A phase transfer cannon? She's going to fire it at this close range?" Shion cried. KOS-MOS started approaching T-elos as she prepared to fire the phase transfer cannon, tossing her chain gun to the side. "KOS-MOS!"

KOS-MOS slowly raised her right hand to activate a barrier before T-elos fired her phase transfer cannon, but the blue-haired android was engulfed in the sphere. The impact knocked us back and I landed on my left side, hurting my recently healed arm. I recovered in time to see KOS-MOS fall to the floor and break down while T-elos approached.

"KOS-MOS. But why? KOS-MOS! No! Please stop!"

T-elos stepped on KOS-MOS.

"I am order!" She said furiously. "Not you, KOS-MOS!"

T-elos fiercely stomped on KOS-MOS's body and completely destroyed her.

"Stop it!" Shion shouted.

Suddenly KOS-MOS's body started glowing brightly.

"KOS-MOS is—" MOMO started as Jr. held her protectively.

"Whoa! What the hell is that light?" Jr. asked.

"KOS-MOS, no!"

The entire area was engulfed in a bright light and I had to cover my eyes in order to block it out.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Back on the Durandal that was flying around the hypersphere Mary and Shelley watched as they noticed something glowing inside.

"What's that? What is going on?" Mary asked.

"Unable to determine." One of the 100-Series said. "The hypersphere had suddenly begun to contract."

The hypersphere shifted its form.

"The gravity variation is too great! We'll be pulled in." Shelley stated. "We have to leave this area immediately!"

The severe bright light from the hypersphere got in the way of their visual.

"Little Master, please respond!" Mary tried. "Little Master!"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Inside the Rhine Maiden Wilhelm approached the Compass of Order and Chaos glowed brightly.

"It has begun." He said. "Once again, in the same place, it has begun."

* * *

ATE: I'm so glad to finally finish this chap. Originally the idea of chaos saving Ayame was never planned to happen, but when I saw the battle quotes for T-elos I immediately thought of Ayame getting shot and then chaos saving her came a few minutes afterwards. Now we have "convenience in the form of a giant robot". I actually made that part up on the spot when I was mentioning the Elias' power source. Also, yesterday I posted a video on youtube showing a slide show of the drawings of Ayame and Lilith (after figuring out how to use a scanner to get the pictures on my laptop) in better detail. Here's the link (without spaces):

_**: / www . youtube . com / watch ?v=Y _ 5Q dy 52 XoM**_

Thanks for reading and please remember to review! ;D


	12. Chapter 11

ATE: YES! I finally made myself finish this chap and glad that it's done. I added a bit more to this chap than I was planning (since the part involving the church was going to all be the whole of chap 12), but I feel like I owe it to you guys for waiting so patiently for me to update this story. I'd like to thank Blaid and Ginga no Yousei for their reviews and for anyone who is still reading this story. Now you can read.

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga or anything related to it. I only own my OC Ayame, and my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 11

I woke up to find myself lying on the ground. I looked around me as I stood up, holding my injured arm and seeing that I was no longer in the cave. Instead, I was standing in what appeared to be a forest.

"Where am I?" I asked myself. I noticed that I didn't see anyone else around. "Where is everyone?"

I was alone in a place I wasn't familiar with and I didn't know where everyone was. Should I stay where I am or wander around in this forest? If I were to stay where I am I wouldn't get lost, but the downside is that I wouldn't be able to find anyone and they wouldn't know where I was. But if I were to choose to wander into this forest I would be taking the risk of getting lost, but I would possibly find someone in this place.

"_Either way, I'll still be in this forest. The question is: should I stay or should I go_?" I thought. I started thinking over my choice until I got my answer. "_I'll go_."

I started walking through the forest in a random direction, aware that I didn't know where I was going.

"_I wonder if everyone's okay._" I thought.

After searching for some time I came upon a clearing and walked into it while in deep thought.

"_What if they're somewhere else? Or if they were killed? No! Don't think like that! They're probably okay!_"

I suddenly felt something heavy fall on my back, causing me to fall to the ground and lay on my stomach. I hissed in pain when my left arm impacted the ground. Whatever fell on me was now sitting on top of me, straddling my back. This prevented me from getting up. I then felt what seemed to be the barrel of a gun to the back of my head and froze.

"Don't move!"

I shut my eyes tightly and hoped that I wouldn't get shot as silence filled the air. Twice! This has happened twice already, the first time I managed to get out with an injured arm, but this time I might not be so luck.

"Ayame?"

I felt the barrel being removed from behind my head after that was said. I opened my eyes and released the breath I just realized I was holding. I turned my head as much as I could look behind me and saw Jr. sitting on top of my back, a surprised look on his face.

"Jr.!" I said excitedly. "I finally found someone!"

"Really? The others weren't with you?" He asked.

"No. You're the only person I've found. Do you have any idea where we are?"

"Not a clue. I don't recognize the area."

"I hope the others are okay." I turned my head and looked around.

I felt something rubbing my back and looked at Jr. to see that he was the one doing it. I blushed as he did this and could feel my heart beating faster.

"Jr., what are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm sorry." He said. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not okay!" I could feel him playing with my hair, making me feel a shiver go down my spine. "Do you have any idea what I was close to doing? If I hadn't been paying attention, I would've shot you! You would've ended up being dead and I would've been responsible!"

I opened my mouth to say something but I wasn't sure what to say.

"Don't say anything. You realize your death would've been caused by my own hands." I felt him lay on top of me and wrap his arms around me. His face was near mine and his left cheek rested on the back of my head behind my right ear. I could feel his warm breath on my ear and skin, causing me to feel bumps form on my arms. "I don't want to lose you…" He whispered in my ear, causing more bumps to form. "…ever."

My heart started to beat faster and louder to the point that I could hear it in my ears, and I think that he could hear it as well.

"Red!"

I felt Jr. sit up and we looked up to see Lilith and chaos coming into the clearing we were in. The look on Lilith's face was livid and before I knew it she pulled Jr. off me and slammed his back into a nearby tree. She held him by the collar of his shirt in an iron-like grip while Jr. winced in pain from his impact with the tree.

"What did you do to her?" Lilith yelled furiously as she glared at Jr.

"I didn't do anything!" He yelled back.

"Don't give me that! I saw you on her!"

"It wasn't like that!"

As this was going on I had been able to get back to my feet, standing up straight a I watched what was happening.

"Lilith, stop!" I cried.

"You're so despicable! I thought you would be able to control your hormones by now!" It seemed like she didn't hear me.

"I said STOP!" I shouted, my eyes shut tight.

After I said this everyone went quiet. I opened my eyes and saw that everyone had stopped what they were doing and stared at me wide-eyed. Even Lilith stopped as well, surprised (like Jr. and chaos) by the fact that I shouted.

"That's enough, Lilith!" My hands were balled into fists. "He didn't do anything. He just thought I was an enemy and ambushed me. It wasn't until he looked that he realized it was me."

Lilith stared at me for awhile before she released her hold on Jr.'s shirt, causing him to drop to the ground unceremoniously.

"Is that right?" She started walking over to me and stood right in front of me before leaning her face close to my left ear. "I hope you realize what you're doing." She whispered. "Because if you end up getting too deep into this, I won't be able to get you out." She pulled back a bit to look me in the eye. "If you're going to give me orders try being more assertive next time."

With that Lilith walked passed me without another word. I was confused by what she told me. What did she mean? What was it that I was getting myself into?

"Ayame?"

I snapped out of my thoughts and found myself kneeling in front of Jr. where he sat on the ground, his back leaning against the tree. I must've walked over here without realizing it while I was thinking.

"Are you okay, Jr.?" I asked.

"Yeah, but that was my line. You never shout at anyone unless it's one of our enemies." Jr.'s eyes showed concern. "What's happening to you?

"I don't know, Jr. I just don't know…and that scares me."

"Maybe your memories are affecting you."

I let my gaze fall to the ground.

"If that's so then I don't want to remember…"

"Don't say that!" Jr. placed his hands on both sides of my face and forced me to look at him, to look into those blue eyes that he had that burned with so many emotions I was unable to make out. This took my by surprise since I wasn't expecting it. "You've come this far and now you want to back out? You've wanted to know who you were from the time you woke up from that capsule! The Ayame I know wouldn't do that! She wouldn't give up so easily even if she were scared! I'm never gonna give up on you, but the question is are you gonna give up on yourself?"

I stared wide-eyed at Jr. from what he said and felt something inside me stir in response. Something about it got to me, but not in a bad way. And then I suddenly felt bad when I finally realized what it was I've been saying and I felt so guilty, so sad…

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Jr.…" I said quietly. "It was selfish of me to say that…to want to give up so easily when I'm so close just because I'm scared."

"It's okay. You're not selfish since you hardly ask for anything." Jr. took his hands away from my face and smiled. "I think we better back to looking for the others before they start worrying."

"Okay."

Both Jr. and I got up and headed in the direction chaos and Lilith headed in. We soon found them but they weren't alone! MOMO, Ziggy, and Jin were with them!

"MOMO! Ziggy! Jin! You're all here!" I exclaimed.

"Looks like our disarranged group is almost here." Lilith said.

"But we're still missing Shion." Jin stated.

"Quiet!" We all went quiet when Lilith said that. "Someone's coming!"

All of us quickly ran into the bushes in order to hide just as the sound of footsteps got closer. That was when I saw the silhouette of a person walking into out line of vision.

"Don't move!" Jr. yelled, causing the person to stop.

Suddenly Jr. jumped out of his hiding spot and landed on the person with his feet, knocking them to the ground.

"Nha!" The person cried out.

I got a better look at the person and gasped when I realized who it was!

"Jr., wait!" MOMO said before she, chaos, and I jumped out of our hiding spots.

"Jr., that's not an enemy!" chaos told the red head

"What?" Jr. looked down at the person he was standing on and his eyes widened. "Oh, Shion?"

"Jr.? Why did you do that?" Shion asked, sounding slightly angry.

"Ah, sorry, I thought you were an enemy."

"Could you get off me?"

"Oh, sorry."

Jr. got off Shion, allowing the dark-haired woman to stand up just as Ziggy, Jin, and Lilith decided to come out of their hiding spots.

Shion sighed when she saw everyone. "I'm glad everyone's okay."

"Actually—" MOMO started.

"We can't find KOS-MOS or the crew of the Elsa." Jr. finished. "I'm sure they were

transported with us, but—"

"Transported? Do you mean a warp transfer?" Shion asked.

"Yeah, we don't know where we are yet, but it was probably that light."

"Oh, no." Shion looked around before her gaze set back on us. "This isn't helping us get anywhere. Let's go find KOS-MOS and the crew."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

After traversing through the area (encountering enemies on the way) we were walking up a hill and on a pathway when Shion stopped to look in the distance.

"It can't be. That's impossible. Jin…" Shion said.

"What's wrong, Shion?" Jin asked, walking over to stand next to his sister to see what she was looking at, only to gasp. "H-huh! It can't be!"

I looked in the direction Shion and Jin were looking in and my eyes widened when I saw the familiar tower.

"But it is." Jr. said. "There's no mistaking it. That's Labyrinthos."

"Labyrinthos? From Miltia?" Ziggy asked. "Wasn't it destroyed during the Conflict?"

"Yeah, I can't believe it either. But there's no doubt about it. If that exists, that means we're on Miltia, at least fifteen years ago."

"Do you mean we're in the past?" MOMO asked.

"I dunno about that. We were in the past when dove into KOS-MOS's Subconscious." Jr. stated.

Ziggy crossed his arms. "Yes, that might be possible as well."

chaos was quiet as he looked at Labyrinthos.

We continued moving through the area and after some time I heard the sound of gunshots.

"Huh!" Shion gasped.

"Gunshots!" MOMO cried.

"Over there!" Jr. pointed out.

"Let's go!" chaos said.

We started running off to where we heard the sound of gunshots coming from. We soon arrived to see two Combat Realians aiming their rifles at a wounded Federation soldier with blonde hair, a nearby soldier not too far away that was already dead.

"Jin?" Shion asked.

"Quiet!" He said, turning his attention to the scene in front of us.

"Dammit! I can't die before I rendezvous with the main unit!" I heard the Federation soldier say. I noticed that he was aiming his handgun at the Realians.

"Those are combat Realians. Looks like they're against Federation soldiers." Ziggy said.

"What do you wanna do?" Jr. asked. "He's not going to last long."

"We can't just abandon someone who's hurt. Let's help him!" Shion decided.

We ran into the area with our weapons out and ready to fight the two Combat Realians. I took care of one of the Realians with the help of Lilith, Jr., and MOMO, while Shion, Jin, Ziggy, and chaos took care of the other one. It took some time but we eventually defeated the two Combat Realians before checking up on the wounded Federation soldier.

"Who the hell are you?" The soldier asked. He quickly drew his handgun out and aimed it at us. "Drop your weapons. I'll shoot you if you don't follow— Nghaa…"

Shion gasped. "Huh? It can't be. Lieutenant Virgil?"

"Virgil? The Testament?" Jr. asked.

"Yes, he looks a little different, but there's no doubt it's him. But how?" Shion asked.

"How do you know my—" The soldier who we discovered was actually Virgil grunted in pain.

"He's hurt." She gasped.

Shion started approaching Virgil but then he aimed his gun at her just as she got closer.

"Don't touch me!"

"Don't move and let me treat your wound!"

"Nha…"

Virgil passed out from his wounds and dropped his gun. Jin came over and kneeled next to him in order to check on him.

"What should we do?" Ziggy asked.

"We help him! What else?" Shion said.

"I agree with Shion." I added.

"But he's a Testament, right?" Jr. asked.

"Don't ask me. I don't know."

"His wounds are serious." chaos stated. "If we don't do something soon—"

"We can't leave him here." Ziggy said.

"Yes. At any rate, let's find a safe location." Jin turned to MOMO. "MOMO, please lend me a hand. I'm going to stop the bleeding."

"Okay!"

MOMO came over to help Jin with tending to Virgil's wounds. We waited a bit and the two successfully tended to his wounds.

"That should do it. Let's hurry and get him somewhere he can rest." Jin said.

Ziggy picked Virgil up and carried him as we moved on to the next area. As we wandered into the area we spotted a woman from the distance standing amongst some flowers.

"Is someone there?" Ziggy asked.

"That's Feb?" Shion said.

"_Feb? As in Febronia?_" I thought, remembering the white-haired Realian from when we were in KOS-MOS's Subconscious.

Febronia took a flower before leaving, walking down the path that was ahead of us.

"Hey, wait!"

"Shion!" MOMO called. "Virgil's getting worse."

"His condition is critical! We have to find somewhere to treat him, quickly!" Jin said urgently.

"But where?" Jr. asked.

"Wait! There should be a church up ahead." Shion suddenly said after quickly thinking.

"A church?"

Shion nodded. "Yes. When I woke up in this forest, I felt strange. But if this is Miltia, and that's Feb, then this is a place I know well. If we follow her, we should arrive at an old church."

"There's no time to hesitate. Let's carry him there." Jin said.

With that we started making our way down the path and sure enough we came upon an old church that I recognized as the one I saw a year ago in KOS-MOS's Subconscious, and next to it was a dark vehicle.

"This is—" MOMO started.

"We saw this place in KOS-MOS's subconscious." Ziggy stated.

"Yes. I met Febronia here." Shion turned to face Ziggy. "The place holds a lot of memories for me and Feb. He can rest inside here. Let's go."

We began to approach the doors of the church and went inside.

"Is anyone there? We have an injured person." Shion called out. There was no response in the empty church. "May we let him rest here?"

Suddenly a young girl with shoulder length dark hair wearing a blue dress and glasses came out. She appeared to be about 8 years old and looked familiar.

"Who are you?" The young girl asked.

"Nhah!" Shion gasped.

"Feb! Feb! We've got guests." She called as he rushed off to the door near the back

"That's me?"

No wonder the girl looked familiar. It was Shion from 15 years ago. I saw a young man and Febronia walk out from the door the young Shion was standing near.

"What's all the noise?" The young man asked before turning to us. "Who are you people?"

"Wha-!"

"Well? What's going on?"

The young man and Febronia walked over to our group.

"Oh, um, we found someone hurt nearby. His wounds are serious and we can't move him, so we came here." Shion explained.

"Someone hurt?" Febronia asked. She went over to Ziggy who was holding Virgil's unconscious body and gasped. "Oh, no! Hurry, this way!" She started running off.

"Febronia, wait." The young man said, causing the Realian to stop. "This man is a Federation soldier. Do you realize what you're doing?"

Febronia turned to him "He may be an enemy soldier, but he's still hurt!"

"I don't think that's a good idea. You're a U-TIC Organization Realian, remember? It's bad enough that you're here at all."

"U-TIC?" Jr. said in surprise.

Shion took a step closer to the two people.

"Please! He's going to die!" Shion said.

"I know. Take him to the back room." Febronia said.

The young man faced Febronia as young Shion approached them. He crossed his arms.

"Maybe I should have Professor Mizrahi be a little more strict in the management of Realians. You're a valuable transgenic model. We can't lose you before your growth is complete." He said.

"I'm sorry, but I can't let him die."

"Febronia!" He started raising his voice.

"If you want to call the soldiers go ahead."

Young Shion came over to Febronia and held onto her arm.

The young man looked like he couldn't take it anymore and gave up.

"Ahh, fine. I wouldn't want to cause a problem with your mental balance over something like this. I'll pretend I don't know about it." He turned to us. "Her maintenance medical kit is outside. It's for Realians, but it should be better than nothing."

"Thank you!" Shion said.

"Don't mention it. It's not like he's going to live, anyway." He walked off.

"Ah-!"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

I sat on one of the pews with Lilith as the others were in the back room trying to take care of Virgil. Through the closed door I somehow managed to catch the word 'transplant' and instantly knew that the soldier's wounds were more serious than we thought.

"I hope he's okay…" I said quietly.

"Why are you saying that? He's an enemy, remember?" Lilith asked.

I turned to Lilith.

"I know he's an enemy, but I can't help but feel sorry for him. He needed our help."

"Heh!" She lowered her head and crossed her arms. "Good Samaritan principle, huh?"

Just then I noticed young Shion coming out from the back room ran over to where we were when she spotted us.

"There you are!" She said cheerfully. "I was looking for you."

"Looking for us?" I asked, completely surprised.

"Yeah! You look like nice people so I wanted to give you these."

Young Shion held out two flowers that I recognized to be a purple iris and a white lily. She smiled as she handed me the purple iris and handed the white lily to Lilith.

"These are for us?" I looked at her as she sat down next to me on the pew.

"Uh-huh. I grew them myself. Aren't they pretty?"

"Yes, they're beautiful." I told her. "I'm growing some flowers of my own."

"Really? What kind?"

"They're Japanese irises. I got the seeds from a friend of mine on my birthday."

I heard Lilith scoff and turned to look at to see that she was giving me a look that say 'a friend, huh?' I turned back to Young Shion and smiled.

"Thank you for the flowers." I said.

"You're welcome. My name's Shion. What's yours?"

"My name is Ayame."

"And my name's Lilith." Said person said.

"Those are pretty names. Now we can be friends!"

I smiled.

"Friends…"

We talked for some time about casual things like favorite colors and animals. I found myself enjoying the conversation even if it wasn't anything specific. As I watched and listened to young Shion I couldn't help but wonder what my childhood was like. Just then she stood up from the pew.

"I wonder how Feb is doing?" She said.

"Would you like to see her?" I asked.

"Yes."

I turned to Lilith.

"Let's take her to see Feb."

Lilith and I followed young Shion through the back door and found the older Shion talking to Febronia who was laying down on top of a treatment machine with a cover over her body. I could see chaos standing in the corner of the room.

"Feb, are you okay?" Young Shion asked.

"Yes, I'm okay, Shion. Everything's fine." Febronia said to the little girl.

"Your name's Shion?" The older counterpart asked, sounding puzzled.

"Yeah. Did you and your friends come in that green ship?" The little girl asked.

"Green ship?"

"Yeah. A pretty ship I've never seen before came down by the east cave. You were on it, right?"

Older Shion turned to chaos. "Could that be the Elsa?"

"Yes. It makes sense for the Elsa to have been sent to the same place with us." chaos replied. "We should check it out."

Just then the young man from earlier walked into the room looking extremely disturbed.

"I can't believe you went and did this. They're going to question my supervision." He said.

There was a brief pause as the young man seemed disturbed.

"I did it on my own. I won't bring any trouble upon you." Febronia told him.

"I certainly hope not. It's about time for the Organization to show up. Could I ask you all to leave? It's only going to complicate matters if you are here."

"What about him?" Older Shion asked.

"Sorry, but he has to stay right here. There is going to be serious trouble is someone finds out I helped an enemy soldier. Once we're gone, you can do as you please."

"All right." Shion turned to her younger counterpart. "Shion, thanks for telling me about the ship."

"Sure. Goodbye." Young Shion said.

We all left the church and walked away from the church before stopping.

"She said that the green ship landed in the cave mine to the east." Shion said. "We should avoid being seen until we know what's going on. Let's go through the Dabrye Mine to the south."

With that in mind we proceeded to the Dabrye Mine.

* * *

ATE: So glad that I finally got this done. Well, now I can take a bit of a break and relax until I start writing up chap 12. Please remember to review! :)


	13. Chapter 12

ATE: That took me awhile to post this. I was originally going to update this story until after I took my SATs this Saturday, but I thought that you all deserved to have the next chap now before then. I plan I working on the next chap after SATs so you'll have something to read until then. I wanna thank Blaid and Ginga no Yousei for their reviews. Enjoy!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 12

After some time of walking we came upon what I assumed to be the Dabrye Mine, where a small house and mining equipment (and a crane) sitting outside the mouth of the cavern which was a bit further up the path. I spotted an old man walking towards the cavern a bit before stopping to gaze at it.

"…? Is someone there?" Shion asked.

Our group approached the old man. He noticed us and turned to face us.

"Hmm? Newcomers, eh?" The old man said. "Don't you people get tired of harassing me?"

We took a few steps forward as we got closer to him.

"Um, sir, are you in charge of this place?"

"Mheh?" He seemed confused. "You aren't with U-TIC?"

"U-TIC? Don't be insulting!" Jr. said, seeming to be offended. Although considering what U-TIC has done it was quite understandable.

"Sounds like something's going on here." chaos stated.

"If you're not with U-TIC, then it's none of your business. Leave now!"

Jin came up to stand next to chaos.

"I'm sorry, but we have our own business." He told the old man. "We must go past here."

"Past here? Hmm? Ah, have you come to investigate that ship?"

"Our friends are on board." chaos said.

"Hmm. That's not going to be easy. My granddaughter Mai is investigating it now, but I imagine U-TIC soldiers are already crawling around inside."

"U-TIC soldiers?" Jr. asked.

"Yes. I'll never forgive U-TIC! They took everything!" The old man yelled. "All the valuable resources from the mine, the livelihood of the people who depended on it, and even the life of my son, Tethlla."

I couldn't help but feel sorry for the old man. He's lost so much all because of U-TIC. I can sympathize…

Suddenly I heard the sound of rocks crashing and turned to look at the mouth of the cave, only to see that it was now blocked be the fallen rocks.

"A-a cave-in?"

"No, this explosion was caused by weapons!" MOMO replied.

"That's Leupold." The old man stated, walking a bit up the path. "I told that girl time and again to avoid combat."

"Leupold?" chaos asked.

"Leupold is the Auto-Tech Tethlla used. Mai believes her father's soul lives on in that machine. Together with Leupold, she protects this land."

"One Auto-Tech is hardly enough to take on U-TIC." Ziggy stated. "What do you want to do?"

"Shion!" MOMO said.

"Sir, I'm afraid we have to go into those caves. Is that all right?" Shion asked.

"Should be fine." The old man then had a concerned expression on his face, possibly for his granddaughter Mai. "If you run into Mai, tell her to stop fighting and come back."

"Will do. By the way, we never asked your name."

"My name? It's Aizen Magus."

I went up to Aizen Magus.

"Thank you, Mr. Magus." I said while bowing.

At this Aizen's expression softened a bit and I barely saw the faintest hint of a smile.

"It's no problem, young lass." He told me. "You remind me of Mai when she was but a small child."

I followed everyone into the mine through the mouth of the cavern.

We soon came across a huge gap with our destination on the other side. The only thing that connected the two sides was what appeared to be a zip line with a sign next to it saying 'Wild Roller Coaster.' Apparently this was the only way to get across.

"Looks like we're going to have to use this to get across." chaos said.

"Agreed." Jin said. "But it would take too long for all of us to go individually."

"Then what do you suggest?" Shion asked.

"We go in pairs at a time."

"I could carry MOMO and Jr. across while I'm in Angel Mode." I added.

"Are you sure you'll be up to it?"

"Yes."

Lilith sighed.

"I'm not sure about you guys, but I won't need to ride that thing." Lilith said before climbing the metal support.

"What are you doing?" Jr. asked.

"I'm gonna run across."

With that Lilith started running along the wire with perfect balance as she made her way to the other side. She made it look so easy, too.

"She's crazy!"

"She's Lilith." I said.

"I think we've already established that." Shion stated.

"Alright, here's the plan. Shion will pair up with chaos, I'll pair up with Ziggy, and Ayame is going to carry MOMO and Jr. separately." Jin explained. "Deal?"

We all agreed on the arrangements and Shion and chaos got on the Wild Roller Coaster. I transformed into Angel Mode and wrapped my arms around MOMO.

"Are you ready, MOMO?" I asked.

"Yes." The pink-haired realian said.

"Okay, hold on!"

With that I started lifting up off the ground and flew across the huge gap carefully so I wouldn't drop MOMO. When I got to the other side Lilith, Shion, and chaos were waiting, so I landed on the ground and released MOMO before flying back to get Jr. By the time I got back Jin and Ziggy just got on the Wild Roller Coaster. I landed in front of Jr. and held my arms open.

"Hold on, Jr." I told him.

Jr. came up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I wrapped my arms around him before ascending and flying to the other side.

"This is the first time I've actually seen you in Angel Mode up close." Jr. suddenly said.

"Really?" I asked, looking down at the red head. "What about that one time when we dove into MOMO's subconscious?"

"I didn't get a good look at the time, but now that I have I think you look beautiful."

I felt my face heat up when he said that.

"T-thanks…" Was the only thing I could think of saying.

"I really mean it, Ayame. I wouldn't just say this for no reason."

I smiled softly down at Jr. before looking ahead to find that we were close to the other side. I landed softly on the ground and released Jr. I reverted back to normal, only to be overcome by a bit of exhaustion and swayed a bit before I felt arms try to steady me from falling over. I lifted my head to see that it was Jr.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Yeah. Just a little dizzy, that's all." I replied.

"It looks more like exhaustion than dizziness." Jin stated. "I'd like to take a look at you once we managed to get to the Elsa. Would that be okay?"

"It will." I nodded my head.

I made myself stand up straight as I lightly pushed off from Jr.

"Ayame, are you sure you should be doing that so soon?" Jr. asked.

"I'm fine, Jr. Please don't worry." I told him.

Suddenly I heard something that sounded like a machine coming towards us and saw a flying giant robot flying through the huge opening in the cave wall.

"What was that!" Shion asked.

"Hm, I'd imagine that was Leupold. It looked like it took some damage. We should hurry." Jin said.

With that we continued moving onward through the tunnel until we saw light at the end of it, indicating that we would be coming outside. Outside was a huge area and in front of us was another cave opening being blocked by a person.

The person turned out to be a girl that appeared to be the same age as I was, wearing goggles on her head of light brown hair. The outfit she wore consisted of an orange and white jacket with black shorts she wore under her white skirt, long black socks and boots. On her back was a sledgehammer that I assumed she used as a weapon.

"Stop right there!" She said to us.

"_Could this girl be…?_" I thought.

"Are you Mai?" Shion asked. "Your grandfather's worried about you." The girl, Mai, approached our group and I noticed that her eyes were green. "Why don't you stop fighting and go back to him?"

"Grandfather is worried about me?" Mai asked. "You're lying! You won't fool me, U-TIC!"

"Hey! We're not lying! He really said that!" Jr. said.

"I can't believe you'd use a child to try to convince me! You're despicable!" She gasped. "Huh! Don't tell me you already got Grandfather!"

"Listen to us!" Jr. looked frustrated.

"Relax." chaos said, stepping up a little. "We just need to get to the ship that's up ahead. We met your grandfather on the way—"

"The ship ahead? So, you're U-TIC soldiers, just like I thought. You're planning on using that ship to destroy this mine!" Mai accused us.

"We're not going to do anything! Look, we're not related to U-TIC."

"Kid, stay quiet!"

"I'm not a kid!" I could clearly see that Jr. was angry. Wait, angry doesn't sound strong enough…maybe pissed…? Yeah, that might be the best word. "Dammit, this is a waste of time. Just get out of our way!"

Jr. started running towards the entrance of the cave, but just as he tried to get through the next area Mai got in front of him and blocked his way, her arms outstretched.

"You've gone far enough! You're not taking another step! I won't let you. You're not getting away with this any longer!" Mai said.

"It's alright. Please Mai, listen to us!" Shion said.

"I don't need to listen to you! I won't let you take anything else from me! I won't ever forgive you." Mai raised her sledgehammer. "Leupold!" Suddenly the robot from earlier, Leupold, flew out of the cave and landed next to Mai. "Time to feel…my father's wrath!"

So I guess this fight really was unavoidable… We all took our weapons out in order to defend ourselves in this battle. I set my sights on Leupold, thinking that if we took care of it first then we'd be getting rid of the blunt of Mai and Leupold's assault. The other must've had the same idea in their minds since Ziggy, Lilith, and Jin started attacking the mech up close while MOMO and Jr. shot at it from a distance. I followed the latter group's example and started shooting at Leupold with my guns. I soon heard something and narrowly missed getting hit by a sledgehammer when I dodged the attack and saw Mai's green eyes burning in anger as she gazed at me.

"This battle is pointless, Mai! We don't need to fight!" I said.

"You're wrong!" Mai yelled. "I'll continue fighting in order to protect this land!"

"Please hear us out!"

"And listen to your lies? Never!" Ziggy managed to knock Leupold to the ground and Mai quickly turned her head to see the robot and gasped. "Hang in there, Leupold. Don't lose to these freaks!"

With that Mai cast an Ether spell that I recognized to be Offensive before trying to attack me with her sledgehammer. I had to quickly change my guns to swords in order to block her weapon from hitting me and struggled to hold it in place. Despite her appearance Mai was strong.

"Mai, I'm giving you one last chance to reconsider your choice. Listen to us or else…"

"Or else what? You can't fool me!"

I sighed. As much as I hated the idea I had to do this; there was no other way. I pushed Mai away in order to get some distance between us before I transformed into Angel Mode, feeling power course through my body as I hovered a bit above the ground. I saw Mai's eyes widened in what appeared to be shock? Fear? I wasn't sure.

"What…what kind of monster are you?"

That got to me and I felt…I felt hurt from what she said. I couldn't help but be reminded of Jr. when we were all in MOMO's subconscious last year, when Albedo called him…a monster.

_"I…I'm not a monster!" Jr.'s…Rubedo's voice echoed in my head._

And those were the same words that left my mouth.

"I…I'm not a monster!" I said.

With that I flew at Leupold and slashed it a bit before it shut down. The look on Mai's face was replaced with rage.

"How dare you! I'll never forgive you!" She yelled at me. Mai tried charging at me but I easily flew out of her reach. "Get down here and fight me like a real soldier, U-TIC!"

"As you wish."

I flew down but then at the last minute I used a Beam Ether attack on Mai, giving the others time to attack her. Lilith rushed up to her and gracefully attack the girl with her daggers, followed by chaos, Shion, Ziggy, and Jin doing the same as MOMO and Jr. shot from a distance. It was with that that we won.

Mai was now kneeling on the ground near Leupold, her sledgehammer discarded in front of her. I took this time to revert back to normal after placing my feet on the ground.

"You're even going to take Leupold from me, aren't you? I know what comes next." Mai got up from the ground. "I'm ready for it. Go ahead and kill me!" She said, sounding as if she was begging to die before turning to face us. "Just like you killed my father and the people from the mine!"

"Get a grip!" Jr. growled, sounding frustrated. "If we wanted to kill you, we'd have done it a long time ago."

"Don't worry. Our attacks on Leupold were just enough to temporarily interfere with its drive system. It should be back to normal soon." chaos said.

"I don't need your pity!"

"We're not pitying you!" Shion yelled, slightly pissed before approaching Mai.

"Whoa, Shion?" Jr. looked scared from Shion's reaction. Not that I blamed him…

"Our friends are on that ship. And if you keep getting in our way, we're not gonna hold back!" Shion continued. "That ship is as important to us as this place is to you. You of all people should understand our feelings."

"Hunh…"

"Mai! Mai!"

I looked behind me and could see Aizen running out of the cave and towards his granddaughter.

"Grandfather?" Mai said, surprised as she ran over to him.

"Oh, you're hurt! You foolish tomboy!" Aizen scolded.

"I'm sorry. They talked about you, so I thought these U-TIC soldiers had gotten you, too."

"These people have nothing to do with U-TIC." He sounded frustrated. "Ohh, I swear, your rashness is going to be the death of me. Can't you be a little more ladylike?"

"The mine workers all ran away in fear of U-TIC! If I don't protect this place, who will? And besides Daddy was—"

"This place connects you to your father, doesn't it?" Shion asked, causing Mai to face Shion. "Don't worry. We won't tread on your memories."

"Your ship should be up ahead."

"Mai."

"If you're done here, then go. I don't need any more trouble." Mai scoffed.

"Thank you."

"Hmph!"

"Geez, she's just as stubborn and aggressive as a certain someone else we know, right Shion?" Jr. asked, turning to Shion.

"Why are you looking at me?" Shion asked, seeming confused.

I suddenly felt exhausted and dizzy. Before I knew it I was quickly approaching the ground and everything went dark.

"Ayame!"

_(Jr.'s POV)_

I heard the sound of something hitting the ground and turned around to find Ayame had collapsed!

"Ayame!" I yelled.

I ran over to her side and knelt down next to her but then I noticed something near her hand, which turned out to be a purple iris.

"_Did she drop this?_" I thought, picking up the flower.

I saw Lilith coming over and picked Ayame up in order to carry her.

"Lilith…"

"C'mon, Red." She said, giving me a side-long glance and I noticed an unknown emotion in her green eyes.

I quickly (not to mention carefully) placed the iris in my pocket before following the others into the cave and upon entering we found the Elsa docked inside. Our group went inside and as the others where making their way to the Bridge I stopped in place, watching as Lilith carried Ayame into the girl's cabin so she could sleep. I couldn't help but feel worried about her. Why did she do it? Why did she have to go and use Angel Mode like that? Ayame knew perfectly well that she'd feel exhausted after using it once, but this time she used it twice without giving herself time to recover her strength! So why did she keep pushing herself like this?

My train of thought was broken when I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder and look up to find that it was Jin looking down at me.

"I'll take a look at her after we see how the others have been doing. Let me know when she wakes up." He said.

I nodded in acknowledgement before walking through the doors leading into the bridge to find Matthews, Hammer, Tony, the Professor, and Allen talking to each other.

"Captain! You're all okay!" Shion said.

"Shion!" Both Hammer and Tony said.

Everyone ran up to us.

"Hey, glad to see you're alive, too." Matthews said.

"I knew it'd take more than that to do you guys in." I stated.

"Heh, we're not gonna go that easy."

"Chief! Thank God! I thought I'd never see you again!" Allen said to Shion.

"Allen! Hey, where's KOS-MOS? Does anyone know where she is?" Shion asked.

Upon hearing Shion's question Allen suddenly seemed down.

"Chief, a-about KOS-MOS."

"What's wrong?"

"We recovered the E.S. craft and KOS-MOS, but there was nothing we could do." The Professor explained.

"What? What do you mean?"

"It's best you see for yourself." The Professor turned to Allen. "Assistant 2, show her the way."

Allen looked up at Shion.

"Chief, this way."

With that Shion followed him out of the bridge to where KOS-MOS would be. What could've happened to her?

I decided to go check on Ayame and headed for the girl's cabin after leaving the Bridge. I then remembered the iris Ayame dropped and took it out, holding it in my hand delicately before entering the room. I saw Ayame resting on one of the beds while Lilith watched her from the chair she sat on next to it.

"How is she, Lilith?" I asked, approaching the bed.

"She's fine. Hasn't even awaken up yet." She replied before holding a glass cup out to me. "Here."

"Huh? What's this for?"

"For you to get a drink." I should've know she would say something sarcastic. "What do you think, Red? Flower plus cup and water equals what? Do you really want that flower to die?"

I finally realized what Lilith was getting at and went into the bathroom to fill the cup up with water before placing the iris in it. Now that the flower was in some water I started making my way back to the bed and placed the cup on the bedside table before sitting at the foot of the bed. I let my gaze fall on Ayame's sleeping form, thinking of what she was possibly going through.

"I keep forgetting that she's 18 years old." Lilith suddenly said. "With the way her personality and demeanor are you'd think she were younger."

"You mean by how naïve she can be at times, right? If so then that makes perfect sense."

"Rubedo…" I turned my face to look at Lilith, surprised that she used my real name instead of 'Jr.' or 'Red'. She wouldn't call me that unless this was something serious. "What do you see whenever you look into her eyes?"

"I see a woman, but at the same time a lost little girl who's searching for something, for answers." I replied.

"I see the same thing. I bet even the others see it as well. It's that innocence that makes it easy fro her to befriend people and trust others. She can be too trusting sometimes and that can cause her to get hurt if she's not careful."

"What do you mean, Argenta?" I asked, using her real name as well.

"See the flower you placed on the bedside table? Ayame is just as sensitive as that iris, especially in the state she's in because of her amnesia. If we're not careful while taking care of her, she'll wilt metaphorically." She chuckled lightly. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I can understand why mothers worry about their children as they watch them grow up. It's kinda strange, but in a good way."

"So in a way Ayame's like a daughter to you?"

"I guess you could say that. At least it gives me a little more motivation in protecting her."

I chuckled.

"Must come with the territory."

"Yeah. Territory that you seem to like invading all the time."

"Which reminds me. You haven't scolded or threaten me once since that incident in the forest earlier. What's up with that?"

Lilith sighed, closing her green eyes before opening them again.

"Like I said earlier, I keep forgetting she's 18." She stood up from the chair she was sitting in and started making her way to the exit. "You can watch over her for now, Red."

"Huh? Where are you going?" I asked.

"To get something to eat. I'm in the mood for some ketchup and fries."

That was all she said before leaving the room. Ketchup and fries. I didn't see that one coming at all. I got up from where I was sitting and took the seat Lilith had been in. Maybe she was right about Ayame being sensitive. I remember the time when I first gave her the guns she now used as her weapon and how confused she was when I told her way.

"_That was about a year ago_." I thought. "_You've come a long way since then, Ayame._"

* * *

ATE: That's all for chap 12, folks. Also, I think my friend will like the reference I made of her about her love for ketchup. Literally, she loves ketchup and I think if it were possible she'd eat it everyday as her meal. Please remember to review! :)


	14. Chapter 13

ATE: Yay! I got some good news and some bad news. Good news is that I'm done with SATs and I've updated! Bad news is that this chap is shorter than I originally wanted it to be, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting for long. I'd like to thank Ginga no Yousei and [my] editoress for their reviews on the previous chap and for those who continue to read this story. Enjoy!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend (who is [my] editoress) owns her OC Lilith.

Warning: Jin's herbal remedy makes a return, along with an unexpected guest (story-wise).

* * *

Chapter 13

Situated outside the hypersphere was the Durandal. On the Bridge 100-Series Realians were typing rapidly at their station after what happened recently. Mary stood behind one of the Realians, worried about Little Master and the others.

"How about on your side? Found anything?" She asked.

"Nothing yet." The Realian replied. "There are no signs of the Elsa or any E.S.s in the U.M.N. region."

"There ain't even a log?"

"None."

"How is that possible?" Shelley asked "If they were transferred in some sort of accident, a log should exist."

"They may have been reduced to Planck-scale along with the Hypersphere."

"No way!" Mary held her hands over her heart, obviously worried. "Oh, where've you gone, Little Master? Ayame? And Master Gaignun is away, too." Suddenly there was a ringing sound, which meant that they were receiving a signal! Mary turned to the direction of the main console where Shelley was. Could it be…? "Little Master?" A communication monitor appeared, but instead of showing Little Master, the face of Juli Mizrahi. The blonde's disappointment was short-live since it was quickly replaced with surprise. "Huh!"

"Committee Member Juli Mizrahi." Shelley exclaimed.

"I assume from the tone of your voice that something's gone wrong." Juli noted.

"The Little Master vanished along with the research target. We're searching for them now." As Shelley spoke, her sister walked up the ramp to stand next to her.

"What? You still don't know where they are?"

"Unfortunately, no."

"I see."

"Committee Member Mizrahi, I presume you did not contact us to check on the situation."

"Yes, there's been a new development in the Federation government. I wanted to inform you at once."

"You sound serious. What is this new development?" Shelley asked.

"The Federation government is moving forward with plans for a full-scale invasion."

"What! Where!" Mary asked.

"The birthplace of the Ormus Organization. Planet Michtam." Juli explained. "The Federation fleet has already set course and is employing the newly-completed Merkabah."

"Merkabah? So Dmitri Yuriev is behind this?"

"Yes. If something isn't done, the chaotic wars of the past may descend upon us again. Or perhaps something even worse."

Mary became worried. "Are they planning to wipe out Ormus?"

"What should we do?" Shelley asked.

"We'll wait and see. Depending on the situation—"

"The Federation military may become our enemy?"

"Dmitri must have a reason for heading to Michtam. That man wouldn't move the entire fleet just to suppress them."

"So, there's something there, huh?" Mary asked.

"That was a record of an object in the remaining fragments of the Y-Data inside MOMO. That object was taken by a faction of the Immigrant Fleet when they left Lost Jerusalem." Juli said.

"An object?"

"The Eternal Circle – Zarathustra."

"Zarathustra?" Mary and Shelley asked at once.

"We're still investigating exactly what it is. But Dmitri has the Y-Data as well, and his is in a more complete from than ours. I have a feeling his actions may be related to that object."

"Oh." Both woman sighed.

"You have the E.S.s and the emulators. So you may be able to stop Dmitri. You should receive full support from Representative Helmer, in such a case." The older woman stated.

"Helmer! Things are that bad?" Mary asked.

"But we can't do anything if the Elsa is missing."

"Leave it to us! We'll find them no matter what! And then, if that old man is doing something stupid, we'll go out there and slap him upside the head!"

"Yes. I'm sure Little Master would like to be a part of that, too." Shelley added teasingly.

"I'm sorry for always asking the impossible from you. I'll head there myself as soon as I can."

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_I found myself standing in the field of flowers again. As I stood in place I could feel a light breeze blowing my hair gently off my shoulders. The breeze also managed to pick up some stray flower petals in the air and blow them away._

_Suddenly I felt pain in my head and couldn't help but hold it in my hands_

_**I found myself fighting a group of people in white uniforms as they tried to restrain me. Using my fists I delivered blow after blow until the last person laid on the floor in pain. I looked up to a person wearing a nice black business suit standing not too far away from me, but I couldn't see their face since it was blurred.**_

"_**Is that the best you got…_?" I heard myself ask, the name of whoever the person was blank.**_

_**I didn't hear the person but I knew they said something. Suddenly I felt arms restrain me again, this time with new determination. I started struggling again as they dragged me somewhere but they wouldn't let up one bit. **_

_**I suddenly felt something sting the side of my neck and I started to feel weak to the point that I couldn't fight anymore.**_

_My eyes shot open and I saw that I was back in the field of flowers again. I brought my hands down so they lay at my sides limply as I hung my head. I've seen that flashback before a year ago but it was different. I didn't understand what it meant._

"_So, did you enjoy your trip down memory lane?"_

_My eyes widened. That voice! I quickly brought my head up and saw the White Testament standing seven feet in front of me._

"_Testament. No… That's not who you are…" I looked up to stare at the white face mask he wore. "You're Albedo, right?"_

"_What makes you think that's who I am?" He asked. I could imagine him smirking behind the mask._

_I frowned after hearing what he said._

"_That's not funny." I said. "Even after a year Jr.'s still sad about your death. Even I-" I stopped myself when I realized what I was about to say._

"_Let me guess. Even you were sad about it?" It was more of a statement than a question._

_I turned my head to look away from him, my eyes downcast. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right._

"_Looks like I hit the nail on the head."_

"_No…" I said, shaking my head after forcing myself to look at him._

"_Stop trying to fool yourself! You're not good at it. Besides, your face tells a different story." I could imagine him smirking behind his mask. "And I see that you're wearing that pendant I had Rubedo give you, being more proof of how you feel."_

"_Why are you even here? Why have you been coming to me here in this place?" I asked._

"_You want to know? I've been coming here for awhile now. I was given the job of observing the progress of you regaining your memories."_

_My eyes widened when I heard this. My memories? If he had the job of overlooking the progress of me regaining my memories…_

"_Do you know who I am?" I asked._

"_I do. That is, to some extent."_

"_Can you tell me?"_

_I watched as Albedo shook his head and I felt confused._

"_Why? Why can't you tell-"_

_I suddenly held my head in pain as what felt like a splitting headache hit me. _

_**I saw an image of two people I've learned were my parents. I could see them crying as sadness reflected in their eyes.**_

"_**We're so sorry, **_**_…**_**"**_

_My eyes shot open when the image in my head faded, the pain starting to fade as well. I found myself on my knees in the flowers bent over somewhat as I stared at the ground._

"What's happening…to me?_" I thought confused._

_I suddenly felt arms wrap around me, pulling me into a warm form and I caught the sight of the color white. I blushed when I realized that Albedo was holding me close, but I did nothing to stop him._

"_Do you remember when you saw me learn that I couldn't die during the Encephalon Dive a year ago?" I nodded my head as best I could in my position. "Do you want to know how I felt? I felt completely devastated and sad. Knowing that you would be alone when the people you care about die."_

_I had a feeling that was how he felt when he learned that. But I was surprised that he even mentioned it. Was he…sympathizing with me…? And he seemed to be sane, as if he wasn't contaminated by U-DO. I felt the sensation of my stomach doing flips and my heart seemed to start beating faster and louder. So loud that I could hear it in my ears, along with thinking that he could hear it as well. My eyes widened when I realized what I was feeling._

"I'm in love with Jr.… I can't feel this way for Albedo." I thought, feeling torn.

_I didn't like feeling this way. I also felt confused and I couldn't seem to choose. I want him to stop making me feel like this._

"I can't choose! Stop making me feel this way! You died and have been dead for a year! I haven't even known you as long as I've known Jr.!"

"_Do you really want to know who you are, mon iris? Are you sure that you won't regret your choice? I would give more thought to my choice if I were you. Think about it some more before you choose. You don't have to choose right now." Albedo said. "Now, go back to Rubedo."_

_It was then that the place and Albedo faded and I woke up._

_%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%_

Consciousness returned to me and I opened my eyes to find someone leaning over me, but I wasn't able to make them out with my blurry vision.

"Ayame! You're finally awake!" A familiar voice exclaimed.

I blinked a few times to clear the blurriness and was surprised to see a familiar red head.

"Jr.…?" I asked. "What happened?"

"I'll tell you later. Let me get Jin."

With that Jr. left the room through the door and that was when I realized that I was laying on one of the beds in the girl's cabin of the Elsa. I placed a hand to my head before hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, causing me to turn my head to see Jin walking towards me with a mug of something hot since I could see steam coming off it.

"So I see you're awake, Ayame." He said, placing the mug on a bedside table before taking a seat in the nearby chair. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired and a little light headed." I replied honestly.

"That's not surprising. I suspected as much since you collapsed earlier. Hopefully you won't mind if I examine you a bit?"

"Not at all."

Jin placed a hand to my forehead before taking it away and holding the side of my left wrist between his fingers.

"Your temperature's fine and your pulse is normal." He released my wrist.

"What was is you were doing?" I asked.

"I was doing something called an 'health assessment,' or at least one type of it. I was told that this was the second time you've collapsed. Has there been anything you've experienced before you collapsed?"

"I've felt dizzy, had a headache, and I see visions of the future, but even when that's happened I didn't usually faint. When I had flashbacks of my past I've never experienced this before."

"I see…" Jin grabbed the mug and held it out to me. "I'm not sure what to make of your condition, but I can say that I isn't the same as Shion's. I would like you to drink this and get some rest."

"What is it?" I asked, taking the mug from him.

"It's herbal remedy. Try to get some rest once you finished it. You've made quite a few people worried about you." He added the last bit in a light joking way.

"Thank you, Jin."

"You're welcome. I'll be leaving now."

With that Jin got up from the chair he was sitting in and walked away. I took a sip of the herbal remedy and immediately tasted the bitterness of it. It reminded me of green tea but more bitter. In other words, I really didn't like how it tasted (although I did like green tea and all, but the bitterness of this stuff made it taste horrible).

"_I'm expected to drink all of this?_" I thought.

I heard the sound of footsteps approaching and turned my head to see Jr. making his way over to where I was.

"Ayame. How are you feeling?" He asked.

"A little better than when I woke up. Jin's having me drink herbal remedy."

"Really? How does it taste?"

"Like green tea, except more bitter."

I took a sip and soon made a face when I tasted it. Jr. busted out laughing.

"Ayame! I've never seen you make that kind of expression before! It's so funny!"

I stared at the mug, contemplating if I should chug it down or not. If I were to chug it I would get it out of the way. I brought it to my lips and did just that.

"Ayame?"

I ignored Jr.'s voice and focused on finishing the drink without stopping. When the last bit come into my mouth I pulled the mug away, breathing in a lot of air from holding my breath. I still had the aftertaste!

"I'm never doing that again." I said.

"I can't believe you did that!" Jr. said from where he sat.

I placed the empty mug on the bedside table and that was when I noticed the flower sitting in a cup of water.

"Huh… That's the iris little Shion gave me."

"So that's where you got it. I've been wondering that since you dropped it."

"Were you the one who put it there?"

"Yeah. I know how you like flowers so I did that for you."

"Can you tell me what happened after I collapsed?" I asked.

"After you collapsed Lilith carried you here and we finally managed to catch up with everyone on the Elsa. You're been asleep the whole time and I've been here non-stop." Jr. explained.

"And what about Lilith? She hasn't given you any trouble, has she?"

"Surprisingly she hasn't scolded me about being around you while you were unconscious. Ever since that incident in the forest she's backed off a lot. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm kinda worried."

"Have you tired talking to her about it?" I asked.

"I tried to, but she's being stubborn and vague about it. I personally think she's waiting for the right time." I nodded in agreement and my eyelids started drooping close as I started feeling sleepy. Jr. must've noticed this since he scooted his chair closer to the bed. "You should probably get some sleep. You look like you're about to do that."

"Okay." I laid back down on the bed before turning my head to look at him. "Can you stay with me until I fall asleep?"

"I'll stay even after you fall asleep."

Jr. smiled at me and I did the same. He held his right hand out to me and I briefly caught sight of the red '666' imprinted on his palm before grasping my left hand with his. I found the action comforting and closed my eyes.

"Thank you, Jr.…"

"You're welcome. Sleep well, Ayame."

With that I slowly started falling asleep.

* * *

ATE: Thank you for reading this chap. Because of this chap Jin's herbal remedy will forever be known as the "herbal remedy of doom". And Albedo has returned too, so double yay! Speaking about Albedo, I also updated my other Xenosaga story called 'Different Circumstances: Xenosaga I The Beginning' which it a sort of alternate story to the original XS I The Beginning, since it's about what would've happened if Albedo was the one to find Ayame instead of Jr. during the U-TIC battleship invasion. So check it out if you'd like! Now for the return of the Chapter Bloopers!

Chapter Bloopers

**"Blah Blah" **- Authoress talking.

_Scene 1_

"So, did you enjoy your trip down memory lane?"

Ayame's eyes widened upon hearing the voice and looks up to see the White Testament.

"Testament. No… That's not who you are… You're Albedo, right?"

"What makes you think that's who I am?" He asked.

"Rape!" Ayame suddenly says.

Albedo stares and it's really quiet.

"Wha-"

"RAPE!" Ayame holds up two index fingers to make them look like a cross as she backs away slowly.

**"Cut!" ATE comes out. "Ayame you're not supposed to say 'rape' at all. But overall this take was pretty funny because of it."**

"So is this take a keeper?" Albedo askes.

**"Oh, yes. It's going along with the bloopers."**

_Scene 2_

Ayame looks up to see Jr. walking over to her bed.

"Ayame. How are you feeling?" He asked.

"A little better than when I woke up. Jin's having me drink herbal remedy."

"Really? How does it taste?"

"Like green tea, except more bitter."

Ayame drinks the herbal remedy and makes a face, causing Jr. to laugh.

"Ayame! I've never seen you make that kind of expression before! It's so funny!"

"Then how about you try it and see what you think?"

"What? No, no, no, no, no! I'm not trying that stuff!"

**"Cut!" ATE comes out. "Ayame, that wouldn't be a good idea to let Jr. try the herbal remedy of doom."**

"I kind of wish there was more sugar in it, though." Ayame said.

**"We don't need you to have too much sugar, or you could end up getting diabetic."**

"I don't think that's possible for Ayame. She doesn't really have that much sweets."

**"Than what do you think would happen, Jr.?"**

"Well, she could end up like a certain detective from a certain anime."

**"[Gasp] My editoress might hurt you for making a comment like that, especially when it concerns L from Death Note (which I don't own). In fact, she might set Lilith loose on you since it's her OC."**

"Anything but that!"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

ATE: That's it for the bloopers. Please remember to review! :)


	15. Chapter 14

ATE: I can't believe it took me two weeks to update this story. I was kinda busy with school and Thanksgiving (by the way, happy late Thanksgiving day!). This chap ended up being shorter than it was supposed to be but there's a good reason for that. I want to thank minaseiko1 for their review for the last chap and for anyone still reading this story. Enjoy!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I own only my OC Ayame while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 14

_I could see Shion standing inside the maintenance room next to KOS-MOS's maintenance bed, a sad look on her face as Allen stood nearby talking to her._

"_Allen…" The dark-haired woman started._

"_Yes?" Allen asked._

"_Do you really think this is that Miltia?"_

"_It's difficult to believe, but the data MOMO's gathered all points to this as the Miltia fifteen years ago."_

_Shion shook her head, seeming a bit confused._

"_I don't understand. This is definitely Miltia from back then." Shion sounded puzzled. "I've met Feb, Lieutenant Virgil, and even my younger self. But I can't just accept it so easily." She turned to Allen. "If this is really Miltia back then, a terrible fate is going to befall this planet in just a few days. Can you believe that?"_

"_Well, Jin was saying…if this is really the world of the past, then our actions now could have a dramatic effect on the future. It's certainly true that we don't know what might happen to us if we interfere with the past."_

_Shion stepped up a little. "But, if that's true, doesn't that mean we might be able to change the past? Don't you wish you could change the past, Allen?"_

_Change the past… Would I wish to change the past?_

"_Well, yeah, I have all sorts of things in the past I'd like to change. I think most people do. Everyone regrets something. I bet everyone wishes they could redo things. But it's not a good idea to interfere with this world without understanding the situation."_

_Everyone regrets something. Those words had so much meaning to me. Would people really want to redo things they've done in the past?_

"_That may be the logical way of thinking, but even so—" There was a brief pause and I could tell Shion seemed frustrated, as if she couldn't take it anymore. "Dammit, everything is happening at once. I feel like I'm gonna go crazy."_

"_Chief. You're probably tired. How about getting a little more rest?" Allen suggested._

"_You're right. I think I'll head to the city to relax." _

_With that Shion started walking towards the door of the maintenance room._

_%%%%_

_The vision changed and I watched as Shion continued to walking up the ramp towards the door leading outside the Elsa as Allen tried to catch up with her._

"_Chief, hey, wait a minute!" Allen called, causing Shion to stop._

"_I can't bear just standing around." Shion said in frustration._

"_You can't interfere with this world." He slightly whimpered._

"_You can go tell on me if you want."_

"_Chief…" He seemed puzzled from her reaction._

_Suddenly Shion giggled, turning to face Allen. "It's okay. I'm just going to go visit the city. I'll be back in two or three hours, so tell the others not to worry."_

"_According to the information we have, the city is in a battle zone with Federation descent troops. Why do you want to go there?" Shion didn't respond and started walking towards the exit door of the Elsa. "W-wait a minute. I'll go with you."_

"_That's okay." Shion said._

"_No, it's not. It's dangerous to go alone." Allen stated. He turned around, unaware that Shion left through the doors. "KOS-MOS isn't here, so I'm going to protect you!"_

_Allen turned to look at the spot where Shion had been and that was when he realized that she already left and I watched as he ran out the doors to catch up with Shion. I suddenly felt bad for Allen. Despite having amnesia and being a bit inexperience (and oblivious sometimes) about everything around me, even I could tell he had feelings for Shion. How could she not notice his feelings for her when the evidence of it was (metaphorically) staring her in the face?_

"Poor Allen_…" I thought sadly._

_%%%%_

_Next I saw Shion and Allen (wearing white and purple uniforms) walking into the city which was occupied with not only civilians, but U-TIC soldiers as well, as they headed towards a towered complex that I remembered was called Labyrinthos._

%%%%

"_Say Chief, isn't this the hospital we saw when we dove into KOS-MOS's encephalon? But it looks too heavily guarded for a hospital." Allen asked. _

"_No." Shion answered._

"_What?"_

"_This is no hospital." Shion approached Allen. "When I was a child, I thought it was a hospital, but this is a holding ward for the test subjects that are necessary for their project."_

_%%%%_

_Shion and Allen were standing inside a room with a console and I heard them both gasp when the saw an old man in a green outfit. The old man looked familiar but I've never seen him before. The old man approached Shion and Allen._

"_You two! What are you standing around for?" The old man scolded them. I realized that he must've thought that Shion and Allen worked there. So that was why the two were wearing those uniforms. "Upload the test subjects' personal patterns to central."_

"_What? Jo-Joachim Mizrahi?" Shion whispered quietly, but I was able to catch what she said and my eyes widened._

"That's Joachim Mizrahi?_" I thought. I've only heard of him once or twice before, but actually seeing him was surprising._

_%%%%_

_Everything changed and I saw Allen turn his head to look at the computer nearby and seemed surprised at something before rushing over to it._

"_Chief, Chief!" Allen called._

"_What?" Shion asked._

"_Look at this!"_

_Shion approached the computer and started reading the information on the screen out loud._

"_Outline of the managing OS for a weapon system to combat the Gnosis phenomenon. The effectiveness of a human-modeled weapon for Gnosis combat? Basic theory of a strategically multiple-operation system that obeys the rules of order?" Shion's eyes widened. "Hey, this is KOS-MOS's basic theory." She took out her connection gear as she used the computer to analyze something._

"_It sure is. He must have already been working on the basic design back then. It really is Kevin." Allen suddenly realized what Shion was doing. "Chief, what are you doing?"_

"_What else? Taking a backup." Shion replied._

"_What? Here? That's crazy!"_

"_I know it's risky, but with this, we may be able to reboot KOS-MOS." _

_%%%%_

_Now Shion and Allen were standing in front of a computer terminal as they were reading the information on the screen. I managed to get a closer look to see what it was._

_**Test subject Tethlla Magus**_

_**T.C. 4749: detected possible test subject quality for connection experiment during the disturbance at Dabrye Mine. Immediately sent to this facility. Public records state that he had been killed in an accident during the disturbance. Performed drug experimentation for six months, but although his link affinity to Realians were high compared to other test subjects, abnormalities in the pulse of the frontal lobe and the tectum appeared during a connection experiment, which resulted in his death six minutes later. It is believed he was unable to resist the fear against U-DO.**_

_This is Mai's dad!_

"_I can't believe this." Shion said quietly. "What should I tell Mai?"_

_%%%%_

_In the next vision I saw Shion approach a person lying in the bed and I saw that the person was actually a woman with dark hair, her skin being a pale color as if she had some sort of illness. Shion gasped quietly upon seeing the woman._

"_Mom!" Shion whispered quietly._

_So this was Shion's mom? Now that I thought about it Shion did look like her._

"_You there, forward the analysis data log. I want to confirm the error in sequence 306." A man with dark hair told Shion. I looked at his face and noticed that he looked a bit like Jin, except older. Was this man Shion's dad?_

"_What is this? Mom is being used in an experiment?" Shion said it so quietly that I almost missed it._

_The man seemed to notice that Shion wasn't doing anything._

"_What's wrong? Hurry up and confirm the data!"_

_Shion turned to look at her dad and I could tell she was angry._

"_Isn't she a member of your family?"_

"_Hmm?" He seemed confused._

"_What kind of experiment is this? How can you use a member of your family as a test subject?" Shion asked angrily._

"_Ch-Chief!" Allen said, sounding fearful._

"_I don't know what you're talking about." Her dad said._

"_I'm talking about the atrocity of using a member of your own family as a test subject! And not just her. How many others have you people done this to?"_

"_They're here because it's necessary. That's all there is to it."_

"_How is it necessary? Have you even studied this personal data? It's clear that they're suffering subconsciously! How can you use the sick and injured like this."_

"_Nonsense. That's just an issue with the numbers. You merely see what you want to see. She doesn't feel anything. She doesn't say anything. This is nothing more than peripheral nerve reflexes."_

_I gasped. How could he? How could this man…Shion's father…so something so heartless to his own wife? I knew this was wrong! Suddenly I saw an image of my mom replace Shion's as well as my dad replacing her dad as well, causing my eyes to widen as I held a hand to over my mouth in horror! These emotions I was experiencing. Was this what Shion was feeling at the moment?_

"_You're just distorting the truth to rationalize what you're doing!" Shion yelled._

_Shion's voice broke through my thoughts and the images of Mom and Dad were gone. I turned to look at her dad as he turned to look at Shion._

"_What? You're the one who's distorting things. To begin with, since when does a mere staff member like you have the right to criticize this project? Know your place!"_

"_Ah—" Shion was frustrated._

_%%%%_

_Everything changed and I saw Shion and Allen following the younger Shion outside as she ran over to a grassy area in front with a bunch of flowers growing there. I immediately recognized it from when Shion told me about her childhood after she fainted on the Durandal._

"_Here!" The younger Shion said._

"_They're pretty. Did you grow these yourself?" Older Shion asked._

"_Yeah! Feb gave me seeds." The little girl replied. "You know what? I'm gonna grow tons and tons more flowers and make Mom happy."_

"_Yes, I'm sure she'll like that. Now, shall we bring some flowers to the soldier?"_

"_Yeah!"_

_Little Shion went over to pick some and I watched as older Shion and Allen knelt down to look at the flowers, noticing the latter had a warm smile as he saw the scene in front of him. _

"_Are you slacking off at your job and playing baby-sitter now?"_

_I saw Shion stand up and turned to face whoever had spoke just now. I did the same and was surprised to see the young man from the church where Febronia was._

"_Mr. Winnicot. This is part of my job." Shion told him._

_Winnicot…?_

"_Oh, excuse me. Still, I'm surprised to see people leisurely planting gardens in the middle of a war." He said. What was his problem?_

"_It's at times like this when we need them the most. Is there something wrong with engaging in productive activity…to encounter the unnatural destruction of war?"_

"_Placing one against another and fighting is a defining aspect of human beings. Resisting it is unnatural."_

_It was quiet and I noticed that little Shion was already done picking flowers since she held some in her hands._

"_You're name is Kevin Winnicot, correct?" Shion asked._

_Kevin Winnicot… The name sounded familiar, but where have I heard it? I know Shion mention him a few flashbacks ago (only saying his first name), but I felt like I heard the name somewhere else._

"_You're a strange woman." The young man, Kevin, said rudely. "Is my name that unusual?"_

"_Are you really Kevin?"_

_Little Shion walked up to older Shion and looked up at her._

"_Come on, let's go." The little girl said._

"_Oh, right." Shion said, turning to her younger counterpart. "Let's go to the church." She then turned to Kevin. "Excuse us."_

My eyes shot open and I sat up in bed and found Jr. with his head on the mattress asleep while he continued to hold my hand. I couldn't help but feel warm inside, knowing that he stayed with me despite being tired. With my free hand I started stroking his hair gently and I soon found myself humming softly. He looked so peaceful that I started to wonder what he could be dreaming about. Was he dreaming about being back on the Durandal playing with Alby in the Park Area, laughing as the small white puppy scampered around as he chased after the red-head? Or could it be something else? I'm not sure he was dreaming about me.

"_But why?_" I thought, feeling confused.

Ever since the CAT infiltration the thought…the feeling that I was supposed to be here with everyone had been getting stronger lately and I started to doubt my existence for being here. Why did I feel like the oddball of the group?

"…Ayame…"

My eyes widened when I heard Jr. mumble my name in his sleep. Was he…was he dreaming about me? Was I really on his mind? I suddenly found myself crying. He was too good to me. What did I do to deserve him? I'm so confused! I did know if I was happy or sad that he was thinking about me!

"_I need to stop crying over little things._" I thought, drying my eyes with my free hand. "_I don't want him to worry._"

I glanced around the room a bit and spotted Shion asleep on a nearby bed and that was when I suddenly remember the information I saw in my vision about Tethlla Magus. I had to tell Mai what happened to him!

"_But will she still be mad at me?_"

Even if I wanted to tell her right no I couldn't since I didn't want to leave Jr. by himself. I'll wait until he wakes up.

I suddenly noticed something glowing out of the corner of my eye and looked up, only to have my eyes widen when I saw the familiar form of a little girl. It couldn't be…!

"Huh! Nephilim? What are you doing here?" I asked quietly so I wouldn't wake Jr. up.

"A lot of things have been happening recently. Surely you've noticed that you've been seeing more than just your past." She said.

"That's right. But why do I keep having visions of the future? I haven't been seeing as many flashbacks of my memories as I have a year ago. And lately I've started to feel like I'm not supposed to be here with everyone or in this age. I'm so confused, Nephilim."

"The visions you keep experiencing are indeed of the future, yet at the same time they are of the past. As for how you've felt recently, it was only a matter of time before you'd start feeling that way."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"That sense of not belonging here and the fact that you're not having as many flashbacks as before are proof that your journey has almost reached its end."

"Almost reached its end?" I asked, suddenly feeling a sense of sadness at the word 'end'. "Will I…no longer be able to stay with everyone? Does that mean I have to leave Jr.?"

"No. Everything has an end to it. Without an end, there can be no beginning. Without a beginning, there can be no end. In a way, the cycle of beginning and end is an endless concept, one that is necessary for life to continue." Nephilim answered, walking over until she stood next to the bed I was in. "The end of your journey will only be the prelude to the beginning of the next one."

I smiled softly.

"I won't have to leave everyone. I can stay…"

I watched as Nephilim turned her head to look at Jr. and I became confused.

"This boy cares about you deeply?" It was more of a statement than a question. "There will be grief once you've regain your memories of who you really are. When that time comes he will become an important aspect in your life."

"How will Jr. be an important aspect in my life?" I asked.

"You will know when the time comes, Ayame."

With that Nephilim faded away and I found myself staring at the empty spot where she once stood. I glanced down at Jr. as Nephilim's words were repeated in my head.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_(Jr.'s POV)_

_I found myself back on the Durandal standing in front of the doorway outside the Park Area. I was aware that I was dreaming, but why was I here of all places? I shook my head. I guess it really didn't matter. I entered the Park Area through the doorway and I immediately looked to my left to find Ayame taking care of her Japanese irises like she always did. That was when I noticed that Lilith wasn't here. But now that I think about it I didn't see anyone else around either. It was as if me and Ayame were the only once here. I walked over to where she was and stood next to her as she was watering one of her flowers._

"_Those flowers are coming out very nicely, Ayame." I told her._

_I watched as she turned her head to face me and I saw her smile._

"_Thank you, Jr." She said. "I enjoy taking care of them. They're special."_

"_You're special, too."_

"_W-what?" I watched as Ayame started blushing from what I said. "I-I'm special?"_

"_Yeah. Especially to me. Wanna go sit down?" I asked, holding my hand out to her._

"_Yes."_

_Ayame placed her hand in mine as I helped her up and I led her over to a nearby bench before we sat down._

"_Do you think things would be different between us once you remember who you are?" _

"_I'm not sure. I hope not."_

"_Ayame…" I turned to look at her and my eyes ended up locking onto her. I realized my face was slowly getting closer to hers as I closed the gap between us. "I just… I've always wanted…"_

_I was so closer. Just a bit more and I could…_

"_Wow. You're so pathetic, Red." _

_My eyes widened when I heard that voice and I watched as Ayame's form that was sitting next to me disappeared, along with the Park Area of the Durandal as well until there was nothing but a dark void. I turned to where Lilith stood and glared at her._

"_Even in a dream you're still trying to get at her." Lilith scoffed. "I didn't think you were _that_ desperate."_

"_Shut up, Lilith!" I retorted._

"_How _very_ original. I should _never_ expect any less for you. Although that's besides the point."_

"_Why the hell are you even invading my dreams in the first place?"_

"_The Nutty Professor has something important to say in the gunroom concerning the Vessels of Anime. You better hurry up and get down here, or I'll personally come up there and drag you out of bed!"_

_%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%_

Jr. suddenly started to stir and I watched as his eyes opened slowly as he woke up.

"Did you sleep well, Jr.?" I asked him, smiling.

I watched as he lifted his head and turned to face me.

"For some reason you seem to be saying my lines lately." He said.

"I guess it's because it's the most natural thing to say to someone when they wake up. At least it does for me."

"Heh. Guess you're right. But we better get to the gunroom."

Jr. let got of my hand as he got up from the chair he was sitting in and started stretching (probably because he was stiff from being in the same position the whole time).

"Why do we need to go to the gunroom?" I asked.

"The Professor has something important to tell us concerning the Vessels of Anima."

"How do you know?"

"Lilith. Need I say more?"

I giggled.

"That says plenty. But what about Shion?"

"I'm not sure about that. Hopefully she'll wake up soon. But we need to go."

I followed Jr. out of the room as we made our way to the gunroom.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Inside the gunroom on the B1 floor we were all gathered together to listen to the Professor. But what the old man had to say wasn't what we expected.

"The Vessels of Anima are gone?" Jr. asked, completely shocked.

"What's wrong?" Shion asked as she walked into the room, finally awake.

"Uh, there's a little bit of a problem." Allen replied, sounding nervous.

"You'd better explain what's going on!" Jr. demanded.

"Like I said, the Vessels of Anima are missing." The Professor explained. "There's nothing wrong with the crafts themselves, but the power cores have just disappeared."

"How can that happen?"

"What caused it?" Jin asked.

"I have no idea." The old man sighed.

"Perhaps it's a negative side-effect caused by our time travel." Allen suggested.

"Yes, yes. Speaking of side-effects, things may get even worse."

"What? Even more stuff is gonna go wrong?" Jr. asked.

"Well, we're not really supposed to be here in this world. That contradiction is slowly but surely building up latent heat energy. If we let it keep going, it'll almost certainly end in destruction."

"Destruction of what?"

The gunroom revealed a hologram of the outer space over the entire computer room. I looked around the hologram that replaced the whole room and I couldn't help but think of the vision I had last year of the red star and the violet star glowing bright before the latter disappeared.

"This universe."

"Whaaat?"

"The universe will be destroyed?" I asked, my eyes wide in shock.

"Well, that might be an exaggeration, but it'll at least blow away this region of space." The Professor admitted. "That's how dangerous this latent heat energy thing is."

"What'll we do? That doesn't sound good." Jr. stated.

"Nah, really, Red?" Lilith asked sarcastically.

"Shut up, Lilith!" The red-head growled at Lilith.

"Is there anything we can do?" Ziggy asked.

"Well, there is something. We may be able to return to our original time if we contain this latent heat energy with a field and interface with the space-time continuum." The Professor explained.

"No problem, then. Let's get started." Jr. said, sounding as if what the Professor was suggesting was as simple as reading one of the books he bought last year from Jin.

"Let me finish! All I'm saying is that it's theoretically possible. We don't have anything capable of generating a field powerful enough to contain it. There's nothing we can do."

Once the meeting (for lack of better words) was over I saw Shion walking in the direction where the maintenance room was and I knew what was going to happen. I ran after her, hoping to tell her about my vision.

"Shion." I called.

"Huh? What is it, Ayame?" She asked, turning to face me once she stopped moving.

"I had a few visions recently, one of them concerning KOS-MOS."

"KOS-MOS? Her eyes widened in surprise. "What about her?"

"You'll find a way to fix her. Don't lose hope." I told her. "I have to go now."

With that I made my way back to the first floor and I started to wonder something.

"_How am I going to tell Mai about her dad?_" I thought.

* * *

ATE: That's it for chap 14. I hope everyone like it. Please remember to review! :)


	16. Chapter 15

ATE: I am really really sorry for taking so long to upload this story. what has it been, 2 or 3 weeks already since the last chap? Probably. I thought this would be a good Christmas present for everyone reading this story so here it is. And sorry for it being shorter than usual. I want to thank **mysterious person **for their review of the last chap and for everyone that's reading this still. Enjoy!

Declaimer: I don't own Xenosaga. I only own my OC Ayame, while my friend owns her OC Lilith.

* * *

Chapter 15

I was currently laying in my bed in the girl's cabin, pretending to be asleep as I waited for Jr. (who was currently sitting in the chair nearby) to fall asleep. Every half minute I could I could hear yawning and I knew he was getting closer to falling asleep. After awhile I felt something being placed on the bed, which indicated that he fell asleep. I waited a few more minutes (just to be safe) before carefully getting out of bed without waking Jr. up. When I was at the door I took one last glance at him before leaving the room.

I had to be careful as I made my way to the entrance/exit of the Elsa. If I was caught by anyone I'd be in trouble. If I was caught by Lilith I'd be in even bigger trouble. But surprisingly I wasn't caught leaving and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Was I feeling guilty?

I started making my way through the Dabrye Mine, passing by the area where we fought Mai, until I came to the Wild Roller Coaster. I had to ride the platform nearby up to the handle that led over to the other side. Holding onto it with both hands I looked down, seeing how high up I was and suddenly felt a bit scared. Was I afraid of heights? It didn't make sense! I flew over this huge gap while carrying MOMO and Jr. separately (and respectfully) in Angel Mode and I wasn't scared.

"_Maybe it's because I knew I wasn't going to fall._" I suddenly thought. "_With this I could lose my grip and end up falling to my death._"

I gulped, tightening my grip on the handle before pushing off. I didn't expect it to propel me forward at a fast speed and I ended up screaming in surprise. After awhile I got used to the speed and before I knew it I was on the other side jumping off the handle. I looked back at the huge gap and sighed loudly.

"I can't believe I did that." I said. Then I groaned quietly. "But I'm going to have to do it again…"

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_(Jr.'s POV)_

I woke up from my nap (I'm not sure how long it was), yawning and stretching before opening my eyes. I turned to where Ayame was, except she wasn't there anymore! She wasn't even in the room!

"_Where'd she go?_" I thought. "_Dammit! How long was I even asleep?_"

I made my way out of the room, hoping to find Ayame somewhere on this ship.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

_(Ayame's POV)_

I made my way through the mine and eventually came out through the mouth, seeing the place where Mai and Aizen Magus lived as I trekked down the path. I spotted Mai nearby working on Leupold (probably because of the condition he was in after the fight we were in recently) and I walked over to her, treading lightly.

"Mai!" I called.

I watched as she lifted her head before turning to face me, her green eyes seeming to glare at me slightly.

"It's you! What do you want?" Mai asked, sounding slightly annoyed, maybe a bit angry. It made me feel a bit uneasy.

"I…I wanted to say sorry…" I said, averting my eyes to look at the ground. "For what happened earlier…"

It was quiet and I started feeling uneasy. Silence wasn't always a good thing in situations like this.

"Why are you apologizing?"

"Huh?" I lifted my eyes to look at Mai, feeling confused when I saw there her eyes softened up a bit. "I-I thought you'd still be mad at me for what happened to Leupold and everything."

"You thought I'd be mad at you? Well, I'm not. Leupold's doing fine now so you don't have to worry. You could say I cooled down a bit since then." She then stood up from her crouched position and faced me. "But I guess I should apologize to all of you on my part. Especially you."

"Why?" I asked.

"For calling you a monster. You didn't deserve it. I have a feeling that wasn't all you wanted to tell me, was it?"

"No." I shook my head. "There's something else I wanted to say."

"Well, start talking."

"You must keep what I'm about to tell you a secret." When I saw Mai nod I continued. "I've been having visions of events that haven't happened yet, even ones that might occur at least an hour prior to it. I've recently seen one concerning information on your father, Mai."

Mai's eyes widened.

"Did you learn anything about my father?" I nodded, feeling a bit sad to tell her that he was dead. "Even without hearing your answer, I can tell by looking at your faces. I thought as much. I'll be all right! I feel as if a weight's been taken off my shoulders! Actually, I think I can live more positively than before! Thank you for telling me the truth! I'll carry on my father's will. Together with my grandfather, we'll restore this mine to its former glory! Here's my thanks! Please take it!"

Mai reached her hand into her pocket before pulling out a bracelet. I could see that it was beaded with what appeared to be smooth round rocks that looked polished, their color being a pretty dark blue.

"It's a bracelet I made a few years ago." She told me.

"You're really giving this to me?" I asked, taking the bracelet she was holding out to me.

"Of course. I'm really grateful for your help with my father. I'm going to devote myself to restoring this mine together with my grandfather. My father left me Leupold. As long as I have him, I can take on anything! Restoring a mine'll be no problem at all!"

"Thank you, Mai. It's a pretty bracelet."

"I never did get your name, you know?"

I smiled.

"It's Ayame. I better get back before the others realize I'm gone."

I started running back up the hill in order to head back to the Elsa.

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_(Jr.'s POV)_

I stood in the main area of the Elsa, leaning against the wall. I looked everywhere on the Elsa! I even looked in the most likely places and the most unlikely places (even having the Professor yell at me to get out of his lab) and I still didn't find her!

"_Where could she be?_" I thought. As I thought through my head as to any possible places she could be, I suddenly realized something! I didn't I think of it before? "_Dammit! She must've left the ship! Knowing her, Ayame probably went to apologize to that girl!_"

So it looks like I'll have to leave the ship. I just hope Lilith doesn't find out about Ayame…

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_(Ayame's POV)_

Because I was rushing I soon made it to the Wild Roller Coaster. I forgot about it and gulped again before grabbing the handle. Despite knowing what would happen I still wasn't prepared as the contraption sped over the gap. I was just glad to get off it! I lifted my arm up to look at the bracelet I was jut given. I knew Mai didn't have to give it to me, but here I was wearing it.

"Ayame!"

My head shot up in the direction the voice came from, only to be surprised when I saw who it was.

"Jr.?"

"What were you thinking? You know we're not supposed to leave the Elsa!" He told me. "I was looking everywhere for you. Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

I lowered my head, now feeling guilty for what I've done. I knew something like this would happen but I wasn't prepared for it to actually take place.

"I'm sorry for worrying you. And for leaving the Elsa. But I had to tell Mai about her father and what happened to him. I had to…"

It was quiet between us and I didn't dare look up at Jr. I soon heard his footsteps approaching me and before I knew it I found myself being held by him, completely surprising me. I thought he was mad at me.

"You had a vision about her dad, didn't you?" He asked.

"Yes."

"It's okay. You probably did the right thing, Ayame." Jr. pulled away from me. "Just be glad Lilith doesn't know about this."

"I am. We all know how she'd react to this." I agreed.

"If it comes down to it we could say we went out for some fresh air. But let's head back before we get in trouble."

Jr. unwrapped his arms from around me and grabbed my hand in order to lead me out of the Dabrye Mine. It was when we were outside that I turned my head in the direction that the city was in, causing me to think.

"Was this…is this what Old Miltia looked like before the Miltian Conflict 15 years ago?" I asked, staring off into the distance.

"Yeah… The same one from that time and the one we went to a year ago for the Zohar." Jr. replied, his voice low. I could hear sadness, forlornness, and a small hint of bitterness, barely noticeable, mixed together as he spoke. "There's only a few days left before the Conflict takes place."

"How do you know?"

"I…we were already on the planet by this time, waiting and preparing for the Miltian Conflict until they gave us the signal for the Third Descent Operation."

"You mean you and the other URTVs."

"Yeah. Listen, can we stop talking about this? It's a bit of a touchy subject for me."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."

"It's okay. Like you said, you didn't mean to." Jr. sighed. "We need to get back."

We continued heading back to the Elsa and soon boarded the ship itself. At least we got back without anyone knowing.

* * *

ATE: So that's chap 15 for everybody! Also, since this chap involved the Wild Roller Coaster inside the Dabyre Mine, I've posted a video on youtube which has all the characters riding it. Here's the link (take out the spaces, of course):

**http : / www . youtube . com / watch ?v=W vwvA 4pg 7j8**

Thank you for reading this chap and Merry Christmas to everyone! Please remember to review! :)


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